Nobody, they say, is a hero to his valet. Of course; for a man must be a hero to understand a hero. The valet, I dare say, has great respect for some person of his own stamp.

If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost.

A well-bred carriage is difficult to imitate; for in strictness it is negative, and it implies a long-continued previous training.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.

These auspicious aspects, which the astrologers subsequently interpreted for me, may have been the causes of my preservation.