That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side.

I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.

Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

The more you delve into science, the more it appears to rely on faith.

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.

The thing about grief is that it's a roller coaster - it's up, it's down. The emotions sometimes take over.

I always write what feels really true and honest and me.

Civility is the natural state for people who know how limited their own individual powers are and know, too, that they need the conversation.

I think that sense of always traveling has something to do with anonymity and privacy and pleasure in having a very clear, very reductive life.

Hearts are fragile things. That's why you have to be so careful.

I tend to focus on what I'm doing at the moment, and that takes up the entire span of my focus.

What one state could not get alone, what one miner against a powerful corporation could not achieve, can be achieved by the union.

If something is going on, I hear about it. I like to talk to people, I socialise. Television is a waste of time. Human contact is what matters.