Wood burns because it has the proper stuff for that purpose in it; and a man becomes renowned because he has the necessary stuff in him. Renown is not to be sought, and all pursuit of it is vain. A person may, indeed, by skillful conduct and various artificial means, make a sort of name for himself; but if the inner jewel is wanting, all is vanity, and will not last a day.

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.

So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

But when all is said, the greatest art is to limit and isolate oneself.

It's true that nothing in this world makes us so necessary to others as the affection we have for them.

Nothing is so atrocious as fancy without taste.