nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.

Thank God when He lays a burden on thee, and thank Him when He takes it off.

Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

If nature is your teacher, your soul will awaken.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.