Death makes us all equal.

Not to find pleasure in serious reading gives a pastel coloring to the mind.

There is no real evil in life, except great pain; all the rest is imaginary, and depends on the light in which we view things

The heart has no wrinkles.

We are never satisfied with having done well; and in endeavoring to do better, we do much worse.

If we could have a little patience, we should escape much mortification; time takes away as much as it gives.

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.

There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night.

I dislike clocks with second-hands; they cut up life into too small pieces.

I know of no sorrow greater than that occasioned by a delay of the post.

... we ought to be astonished at nothing; for what do we not meet with in our journey through life?

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and what it saw in a plain way. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion--all in one.

I never laugh or smile when I am writing. When I come home for lunch after writing all morning, my wife says I look like I just came home from a funeral. This is not bragging. This is an illness.

I think it's no secret that I've tried to take chances in my career and also in my life, and I believe to not live in fear.

I can only insist that understanding, not blind belief, should be the goal.

I don't like to say bad things about paleontologists, but they're not very good scientists. They're more like stamp collectors.

Indecision is fatal. It is better to make a wrong decision than build up a habit of indecision. If you're wallowing in indecision, you certainty can't act - and action is the basis of success

Science is a cemetary of dead ideas.

We are entirely in the care of Divine Providence, and it is very sweet to remain so in peace. The Cross is never lacking; may it be our consolation.

I was blessed in the sense that I got handed so much early on in life. I got a lot of the things people go through their 20s and 30s craving.

To me, Paul Scholes was in a class of his own.