The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.

We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.

The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images; we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.