It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.

Universal love is a glove without fingers, which fits all bands alike and none closely; but true affection is like a glove with fingers, which fits one hand only, and sits close to that one.

If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the road to self-knowledge.

Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world.

The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying.

Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.

No heroine can create a hero through love of one, but she can give birth to one