Every man's memory is his private literature.

Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

In books, the proportion of exceptional to commonplace people is very high; in reality, very low.

The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.

Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.