I have no enthusiasm for nature which the slightest chill will not instantly destroy.

Masterpieces are only lucky attempts.

Fame and admiration weigh not a feather in the scale against friendship and love, for the heart languishes all the same.

[Failure is hard initially because] One knows what one has lost, but not what one may find [and learn from that failure]!

nature has not changed. The night is still unsullied, the stars still twinkle, and the wild thyme smells as sweetly now as it did then ... We may be afflicted and unhappy, but no one can take from us the sweet delight which is nature's gift to those who love her and her poetry.

As far as I am concerned I would rather spend the rest of my life in prison than marry again.

The capacity for passion is both cruel and divine.