A child motivated by competitive ideals will grow into a man without conscience, shame, or true dignity.

Life is a succession of afflictions for the heart.

You don't have to write to me if you don't feel like it. There's no real friendship without absolute freedom.

To be made evident, truth must be sought for; for of itself it is slow to appear, and between ourselves and God the obstacles are so many!

It is sad, no doubt, to exhaust one's strength and one's days in cleaving the bosom of this jealous earth, which compels us to wring from it the treasures of its fertility, when a bit of the blackest and coarsest bread is, at the end of the day's work, the sole recompense and the sole profit attaching to so arduous a toil.

Oblivion is the flower that grows best on graves.

It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides.