In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You can not lay a trap for it.

If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well.

The discovery of a grey hair when you are brushing out your whiskers of a morning - first fallen flake of the coming snows of age - is a disagreeable thing.

In my garden, care stops at the gate and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of mortal life.

Death, which we are accustomed to consider an evil, really acts for us the friendliest part, and takes away the commonplace of existence.

Books are a finer world within the world. (1863)