“It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.”

To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.

Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.

Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?

The agricultural population produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers,46 and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs.

The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception.

It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.

In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee.

Nothing is so unequal as equality.

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements.

The most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.

How many things… are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?

The perverted ingenuity of man has given to water the power of intoxicating where wine is not procured. Western nations intoxicate themselves by moistened grain.

Nature makes us buy her presents at the price of so many sufferings that it is doubtful whether she deserves most the name of parent or stepmother.

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils.

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.

There are also numberless earths circling around their suns.

If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there’d be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.

The sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart.