A cunning mind emphatically delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey of cunning.

Talk without truth is the hollow brass; talk without love is like the tinkling cymbal, and when it does not tinkle it jingles, and when it does not jingle, it jars.

A bond is necessary to complete our being, only we must be careful that the bond does not become bondage.

We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love.

A good taste in art feels the presence or the absence of merit; a just taste discriminates the degree--the poco piu and the poco meno. A good taste rejects faults; a just taste selects excellences. A good taste is often unconscious; a just taste is always conscious. A good taste may be lowered or spoilt; a just taste can only go on refining more and more.

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.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.