“If I am a man of some reading, I am a man of no retentiveness.”

“If any one should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I feel it could no otherwise be expressed than by making answer, ‘Because it was he; because it was I.’ There is, beyond what I am able to say, I know not what inexplicable and inevitable power that brought on this union.”

“When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.”

“Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice.”

“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.”

“People try to get out of themselves and to escape from the man. This is folly; instead of transforming themselves into angels, they turn into beast; instead of lifting, they degrade themselves. These transcendental humors frighten me, like lofty and inaccessible heights.”

“I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.”