Fully to understand a grand and beautiful thought requires, perhaps, as much time as to conceive it.

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

Strength is natural, but grace is the growth of habit. This charming quality requires practice if it is to become lasting.

It is always our inabilities that vex us.

There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way; virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment.

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

There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves.