Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary inference is the fair one.

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things.