The grief of childhood is terrible while it lasts, it is so abandoned and so all-possessing.
... the irony of life is not that you cannot forget but that you can.
... France is the genius among nations.
when I am alone in the forest I always say my prayers; and that occasional solitary communion with God is surely the only true religion for intelligent beings.
[Alexander] Hamilton estimated portrait painters as thieves of time.
It took me some time to learn that although every one secretly cherishes the ambition to be 'put in a book,' no one is ever satisfied with anything save incense, butter, and honey, unrelieved by salt or spice.