If fortune wishes to make a man estimable, she gives him virtues; if she wishes to make him esteemed, she gives him success.

He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness.

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.

We find little in a book but what we put there. But in great books, the mind finds room to put many things.

Never be sad for what is over, just be glad it was once yours. Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.

Of what delights are we deprived by our excesses!

The dregs may stir themselves as they please; they fall back to the bottom by their own coarseness.