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

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity.

There is a joy in sorrow which none but a mourner can know.

Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account?

Variety of mere nothings gives more pleasure than uniformity of something.

See, indeed, that your daughter is thoroughly grounded and experienced in household duties; but take care, through religion and poetry, to keep her heart open to heaven.

Without God there is for mankind no purpose, no goal, no hope, only a wavering future, an eternal dread of every darkness.