Stiffness of opinion comes from pettiness of mind; we do not easily believe in anything that is beyond our range of vision.
Good taste is based on judgment rather than on intelligence.
It is more often through pride than through any want of enlightenment that men set themselves stubbornly to oppose the most current opinions; finding all the best places taken on the popular side, they do not want those in the rear.
In order to understand things well one must know the detail of them; and as this is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
It is never so difficult to talk well as when we are ashamed of our silence.
The excessive pleasure we feel in talking about ourselves ought to make us apprehensive that we afford little to our listeners.
Truth has not done so much good in the world as the false appearances of it have done harm.
Man's chief wisdom consists in being sensible of his follies.
IV.—Human Life and Human Nature
Youth is a continual intoxication; it is the fever of reason.