Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.

There is no outward sign of true courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.

One never learns to understand truly anything but what one loves.

Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.

Flowers are the beautiful hieroglyphics of nature with which she indicates how much she loves us.

One does not get to know that one exists until one rediscovers oneself in others.

I will say with Lorenzo de Medici that those who do not hope for another life are always dead to this one.