I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.

I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.

Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Those who work much do not work hard.

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

There are two classes of authors: the one write the history of their times, the other their biography.

Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.