A man must be of a very quiet and happy nature, who can long endure the country; and, moreover, very well contented with his own insignificant person.

I am never indifferent, and never pretend to be, to what people say or think of my books. They are my children, and I like to have them liked.

Let us be merciful as well as just.

To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.

All your strength is in union, all your danger is in discord.

The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.

I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.