“People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.”

“Truth might be heroic, but it was not within the range of practical domestic politics.”

“It stands to reason that he who would cure a moral ailment must be practically acquainted with it in all its bearings.”

“When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence. ”

“For society indeed of all sorts, except of course that of a few intimate friends, he had an unconquerable aversion. "I always did hate those people," he said, "and they always have hated and always will hate me. I am an Ihsmael by instinct as much as by accident of circumstances, but if I keep out of society I shall be less vulnerable than Ishmaels generally are. The moment a man goes into society, he becomes vulnerable all round.”

“Young people have a marvellous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.”

“Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime”