"I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. …"

"There is nothing in itself valuable or despicable, desirable or hateful, but as it acquires these attributes from the mind of the person who surveys it."

"Thus the Jews in Europe, and the Armenians in the east, have a peculiar character; and the former are as much noted for fraud, as the latter for probity."

"Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty."

"The life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster."