I laugh at my heart, and do its will

Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.

If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.

Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it is securely founded; that it be successfully executed.

Must it ever be thus-that the source of our happiness must also be the fountain of our misery? The full and ardent sentiment which animated my heart with the love of nature, overwhelming me with a torrent of delight, and which brought all paradise before me, has now become an insupportable torment, a demon which perpetually pursues and harrasses me.

The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.