“In science, mistakes always precede the truth.”

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.”

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.”

“He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.”

“But alas! my Lord, what is blood! what is nobility! We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the dust whence we sprung, and whither we must return.”

“There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe.”