All government, all exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based in love and directed by knowledge, is a tyranny.

If a superior woman marry a vulgar or inferior man, he makes her miserable, but seldom governs her mind or vulgarizes her nature; and if there be love on his side, the chances are that in the end she will elevate and refine him.

He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius: as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own.

Of how many women might the history be comprised in those few words - 'she lived, suffered, and was buried'!

If we can still love those who have made us suffer, we love them all the more.

The moment in which the spirit meets death is perhaps like the moment in which it is embraced in sleep. I suppose it never happened to any one to be conscious of the immediate transition from the waking to the sleeping state.

In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.