To quit smoking, you must first want to quit, but then you must also do the quitting

We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.

I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.

Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

Rash combat oft immortalizes man; if he should fall, he is renowned in song; but after-ages reckon not the ceaseless tears which the forsaken woman sheds. Poets tell us not of the many nights consumed in weeping, or of the dreary days wherein her anguished soul vainly yearns to call her loved one back.

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.