One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them.

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

The theater has often been at variance with the pulpit; they ought not to quarrel. How much is it to be wished that in both the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.