My definition [of a philosopher] is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down. – Louisa May Alcott, in Life, Letters, and Journals, ed. E.D. Cheney, 1889
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics. – Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route. – Charles Caleb Colton
