This is one of those instances in which the individual genius is found to consent, as indeed it always does, at last, with the universal.

The poet will maintain serenity in spite of all disappointments. He is expected to preserve an unconcerned and healthy outlook over the world, while he lives.

It is worth the while to live respectably unto ourselves. We can possibly get along with a neighbor, even with a bedfellow, whom we respect but very little; but as soon as it comes to this, that we do not respect ourselves, then we do not get along at all, no matter how much money we are paid for halting.

Wealth can't buy heath, but heath can buy wealth.

I repeat that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is provincial, having authority to consult about Transalpine interests only, and not the affairs of Rome. A prætor or proconsul would suffice to settle the questions which absorb the attention of the English Parliament and the American Congress.

As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.

The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind.