45 quotes
Great power is almost always a great evil.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Knowledge, when only the possession of a few, has almost always been turned to iniquitous purposes.
Romance and Reality (1831)
The old proverb, applied to fire and water, may, with equal truth, be applied to the imagination—it is a good servant, but a bad master.
Romance and Reality (1831)
A great change in life is like a cold bath in winter — we all hesitate at the first plunge.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Ill nature is to conversation what oil is to the lamp—the only thing that keeps it alive.
Romance and Reality (1831)
The first records of our young world were those of tears and blood; its last records will be those of tears and blood also.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Truth is like the philosopher's stone, a thing not to be discovered.
Romance and Reality (1831)
One should never let pleasure interfere with business.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Nothing circulates so rapidly as a secret.
Romance and Reality (1841)
A preface is a species of literary luxury, where an author, like a lover, is privileged to be egotistical.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Like the cards which form a child's plaything palace, our pleasures are nicely balanced one upon the other.
Romance and Reality (1831)
What betraying things blushes are ! Like sealing wax in the juvenile riddle, a blush "burns to keep a secret."
Romance and Reality (1831)
An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.
Romance and Reality (1831)
It is amazing how much a thought expands and refines by being put into speech: I should think it could hardly know itself.
Romance and Reality (1831)
There is something very amusing in the misfortunes of others.
Romance and Reality (1831)
Morning, that breaker of spells and sleep.
Romance and Reality (1831)
There is a large stock on hand; but somehow or other, nobody's experience ever suits us but our own.
Romance and Reality (1831)
There is nothing so easy as to be wise for others ; a species of prodigality, by the by — for such wisdom is wholly wasted.
Romance and Reality (1831)
No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very miserable.
Romance and Reality (1831)
The great happiness-secret, after all, is division. How dare we, in this vain, fleeting world, concentrate our whole freight of interest in one frail bark ?
Romance and Reality (1831)