When my self is not with you, it is nowhere.

I am convinced by a sad experience that it is natural to avoid those to whom we have been too much obliged, and that uncommon generosity causes neglect rather than gratitude.

Would that thy love, beloved, had less trust in me, that it might be more anxious!

Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits.

If a picture, which is but a mute representation of an object, can give such pleasure, what cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions, they can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they have all the tenderness and the delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness of expression even beyond it.

The name of mistress instead of wife would be dearer and more honourable for me, only love given freely, rather than the constriction of the marriage tie, is of significance to an ideal relationship.

What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart.