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.

In women everything is heart, even the head.

Joys are our wings, sorrows our spurs.

What makes old age so sad is, not that our joys, but that our hopes then cease.

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.

As a man grows older it is harder and harder to frighten him.

Despair is the only genuine atheism.