It is because of the servility of photography that I am fundamentally contemptuous of this chance invention which will never be an art but which plagiarizes nature by means of optics. (1848)

Man, man, is thy brother, and thy father is God.

God has placed the genius of women in their hearts, because the works of this genius are always works of love.

Silence and simplicity obtrude on no one, but are yet two unequaled attractions in woman.

The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.

To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.

Love is the enchanted dawn of every heart.