Liberty is the only true riches: of all the rest we are at once the masters and the slaves.

Actors are the only honest hypocrites.

We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth of facts in the other.

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

No really great man ever thought himself so.

Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.

The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.