“There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.”

“We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.”

“To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical.[Fr., Se moquer de la philosophie c'est vraiment philosophe.]”

“When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.”

“When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true.”

“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”

“He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.”

“Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought.”

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.”

“Wisely weigh our sorrow with our comfort.”

“They are sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.”

“All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability. Propositions, for instance, which set all the truth upon one side can only enter rich minds to dislocate and strain, if they can enter at all, and sooner or later the mind expels them by instinct.”

“We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example.”

“Many bad policies are simply good policies taken too far.”

“The wound of peace is surety, Surety secure; but modest doubt is called The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To th' bottom of the worst.”

“Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence, But never tax'd for speech.”

“Tongues I'll hang on every treeThat shall civil sayings show. . . .”