"There is no more potent antidote to the poison of an evil imagination than the free and healthy play of the mind upon the works of nature."

"Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful."

"Be frank and explicit. That is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and to confuse the minds of others."

"We can know nothing of humankind without knowing something of ourselves. Self-knowledge is the property of those people whose passions have their full play, but who ponder over their results."

"It is not wealth that makes a nation, but the character of its people."