Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which.

There are two consequences in history; an immediate one, which is instantly recognized, and one in the distance, which is not at first perceived. These consequences often contradict each other; ... look to the end of an accomplished fact, and you will see that it has always produced the contrary of what was expected from it.

Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.

Alexander created cities everywhere he passed: I have left dreams everywhere I have trailed my life.

Justice is the bread of the nation; it is always hungry for it.

We must not always try to plumb the depths of the human heart; the truths it contains are among those that are best seen in half-light or in perspective.