Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.

Forms of government become established of themselves. They shape themselves, they are not created. We may give them strength and consistency, but we cannot call them into being. Let us rest assured that the form of government can never be a matter of choice: it is almost always a matter of necessity.

Space is to place as eternity is to time.

Science confounds everything; it gives to the flowers an animal appetite, and takes away from even the plants their chastity.

Never cut what you can untie.

I resemble the poplar,--that tree which, even when old, still looks young.

Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision.