Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.

Love, whose power youth feels, is not suitable for the elderly, just as little as anything that presupposes productivity. It is rare that productivity lasts through the years.

The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.

The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.

Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant passages.

The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.