Genius, the Pythian of the beautiful, leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull.

When one is in a good sound rage, it is astonishing how calm one can be.

The easiest person to deceive is one's self.

A life of pleasure makes even the strongest mind frivolous at last.

Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz: The mind and soul of man.

The most delicate beauty in the mind of women is, and ever must be, an independence of artificial stimulants for content. It is not so with men. The links that bind men to capitals belong to the golden chain of civilization,--the chain which fastens all our destinies to the throne of Jove. And hence the larger proportion of men in whom genius is pre-eminent have preferred to live in cities, though some of them have bequeathed to us the loveliest pictures of the rural scenes in which they declined to dwell.

Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.