Nothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds.

Lamps make oil-spots and candles need snuffing; it is only the light of heaven that shines pure and leaves no stain.

True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and, despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine.

The world is so great and rich, and life so full of variety, that you can never lack occasions for poems.

When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.