Art's greatest efforts are invariably a timid counterfeit of Nature.

The most virtuous women have within them something that is never chaste.

We must certainly acknowledge that solitude is a fine thing; but it is a pleasure to have some one who can answer, and to whom we can say, from time to time, that solitude is a fine thing.

While seeking out the dead, I see nothing but the living.

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from.

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.