In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.

Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart.

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.

A man would create another man if one did not already exist, but a woman might live an eternity without even thinking of reproducing her own sex.

There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.

The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both.