💬 Quotes

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others..."

"Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?"

"O for a muse of fire, that would ascend / The brightest heaven of invention!"

"The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, and if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it."

"I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me go till I go with them, till I respond to them."

"I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first."

"Convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, I formed rectangles and other diagrams... to regulate my conduct."

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

"I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week."

"I grew generally fond of the study, and took pleasure in it... I had been extremely fortunate in my choice of literary models, and particularly in the use of the Spectator."

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day."

"The subjects most healthy for a private mind to reflect upon are those where, clear of all historical perspective, you see the supreme power of moral character and self-discipline."

"Human minds are naturally prone to forgetfulness, especially of gratitude, and are quicker to resent an injury than to repay a kindness."

"Men are more easily governed by fear than by a sense of duty."

"In human affairs, the greatest dangers are often discovered where the greatest precautions have been taken against them."

"Events always show that the side with the greatest courage has also the greatest fortune."

"History is the best witness to the truth; it casts light upon antiquity, brings life to our recollection, and bestows a vital stamp on the monuments of the past."

"Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, the facts of my life."

"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own."