Round my cradle shimmered the last moonbeams of the eighteenth century and the first morning rays of the nineteenth.

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.

The men of the past had convictions, while we moderns have only opinions.

Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes are: a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, the freshest milk and butter, flowers before my window, and a few fine trees before my door; and if God wants to make my happiness complete, he will grant me the joy of seeing some six or seven of my enemies hanging from those trees. Before death I shall, moved in my heart, forgive them all the wrong they did me in their lifetime. One must, it is true, forgive one's enemies-- but not before they have been hanged.

Where books are burned in the end people will be burned too.

In the marvelous month of May when all the buds were bursting, then in my heart did love arise. In the marvelous month of May when all the birds were singing, then did I reveal to her my yearning and longing.

The swan, like the soul of the poet, By the dull world is ill understood.