[The] taste [of the French] is too timid to be true taste--or is but half taste.

I can forgive injuries, but never benefits.

René of Anjou [(1409-80)] painted a picture of his mistress's corpse as he found it eaten by worms on having it [her tomb] openedon his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This [is] another instance of the strange mixture of religion and gallantry in those ages.

When the Prince of Piedmont [later Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia] was seven years old, his preceptor instructing him in mythology told him all the vices were enclosed in Pandora's box. "What! all!" said the Prince. "Yes, all." "No," said the Prince; "curiosity must have been without.

The curse of modern times is, that almost everything does create controversy.

Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.

Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.