The dear good people don't know how long it takes to learn to read. I've been at it eighty years, and can't say yet that I've reached the goal.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.

When she sees the leaves fall, they raise no other idea in her mind than that winter is approaching.

We are not all equal, nor can we be so.

Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.

The best way to understand a painting is by drawing it.