To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.

One never hugs one's good luck so affectionately as when listening to the relation of some horrible misfortunes which has overtaken others.

I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me. I breathe the morning air of the world while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingered in it, while it vibrated only to the world's first brood of nightingales, and to the laugh of Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear the shoutings of the armies of Alexander.

Every day travels toward death; the last only arrives at it.

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.

In my garden I spend my days; in my library I spend my nights.

It is the sternest philosophy, but on the whole the truest, that, in the wide arena of the world, failure and success are not accidents, as we so frequently suppose, but the strictest justice.