Thomas de Quincey

The public is a bad guesser.

It was a Sunday afternoon, wet and cheerless; and a duller spectacle this earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sunday in London.

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.