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-break…

- Thomas De Quincey

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world …

- Thomas De Quincey

The laughter of girls is, and ever was, among the delightful sounds of earth.

- Thomas De Quincey

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.

- Thomas De Quincey

All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.

- Thomas De Quincey

All is finite in the present; and even that finite is infinite in it velocity of flight towards death. But in God there is nothing finite...Upon a ni…

- Thomas De Quincey

For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not suscepti…

- Thomas De Quincey

It is one of the misfortunes in life that one must read thousands of books only to discover that one need not have read them.

- Thomas De Quincey

But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider w…

- Thomas De Quincey