The art of conversation is to be prompt without being stubborn, to refute without argument, and to clothe great matters in a motley garb.

There is anguish in the recollection that we have not adequately appreciated the affection of those whom we have loved and lost.

Change is as inexorable as time, yet nothing meets with more resistance.

Ah, Ireland... That damnable, delightful country, where everything that is right is the opposite of what it ought to be.

Nature is more powerful than education; time will develop everything.

An insular country, subject to fogs, and with a powerful middle class, requires grave statesmen.

I have begun several times many things, and I have often succeeded at last.