Sympathy is the first condition of criticism; reason and justice presuppose, at their origin, emotion.

The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair.

Hope is only the love of life.

Happiness does away with ugliness, and even makes the beauty of beauty.

Our dependence outweighs our independence, for we are independent only in our desire, while we are dependent on our health, on nature, on society, on everything in us and outside us.

Accept life, and you must accept regret.

Nature does at least what she can to translate into visible form the wealth of the creative formula. By the vastness of the abysses into which she penetrates, in the effort--the unsuccessful effort--to house and contain the eternal thought, we may measure the greatness of the divine mind.