Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.

A beautiful soul has no other merit than its own existence.

To rankling poison hast thou turned in me the milk of human kindness.

That which is so universal as death must be a benefit.

The mind is the eyesight of the soul.

Secrecy is for the happy,--misery, hopeless misery, needs no veil; under a thousand suns it dares act openly.

The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.