There is no dunce like a mature dunce.

When a man's life is over, it remains true that he was one sort of man and not another. A man who understands himself under the form of eternity knows the quality that eternally belongs to him, and knows that he cannot wholly die, even if he would, for when the movement of his life is over, the truth of his life remains.

The profoundest affinities are those most readily felt, and though a thousand later considerations may overlay and override them, they remain a background and standard for all happiness. If we trace them out we succeed.

Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavour to understand him.

Love is at once more animal than friendship and more divine.

Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own finitude, and his finitude itself is, in one sense, overcome.

A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.