Courage is as often the outcome of despair as of hope; in the one case we have nothing to lose, in the other everything to gain.

Men at any age truly never grow up. All, no matter what importance they may have attained, are still no more than little boys.

Old age appears hideous to us until we have to choose between it and death.

We only make a dupe of the friend whose advice we ask, for we never tell him all; and it is usually what we have left unsaid that decides our conduct.

Tact is good taste in action.

It is easier to die for a cause than to live for it.

... see well how it often befalls that to rise to the topmost degree would make it seem that the abyss is on high.