I do not believe such a quality as chance exists. Every incident that happens must be a link in a chain.

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

Patriotism depends as much on mutual suffering as on mutual success; and it is by that experience of all fortunes and all feelings that a great national character is created.

Never argue. In society nothing must be; give only results. If any person differs from you, bow, and turn the conversation.

The affections are the children of ignorance; when the horizon of our experience expands, and models multiply, love and admiration imperceptibly vanish.

The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

As we retain but a faint remembrance of our felicity, it is but fair that the smartest stroke of sorrow should, if bitter, at least be brief.