Contempt for private wrongs was one of the features of ancient morals.

The idea of the nest in the bird's mind, where does it come from?

Every modulated sound is not a song, and every voice that executes a beautiful air does not sing. Singing should enchant. But to produce this effect there must be a quality of soul and voice which is by no means common even with great singers.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

The voice is a human sound which nothing inanimate can perfectly imitate. It has an authority and an insinuating property which writing lacks. It is not merely so much air, but air modulated and impregnated with life.

I quit Paris unwillingly, because I must part from my friends; and I quit the country unwillingly, because I must part from myself.

Only just the right quantum of wit should be put into a book; in conversation a little excess is allowable.