Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

We imagine that the admiration of the works of celebrated men has become common, because the admiration of their names has become so.

We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

Reflection makes men cowards.