There is nothing beautiful or sweet or great in life that is not mysterious.

A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives--all bear secret relations to our destinies.

Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.

There is nothing beautiful or sweet or great in life that is not mysterious.

The most disastrous times have produced the greatest minds. The purest metal comes of the most ardent furnace; the most brilliant lightning come of the darkest clouds.

One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.