Good maxims are the germs of all excellence.

We should make ourselves loved, for men are only just towards those whom they love.

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman.

The last word should be the last word. It is like a finishing touch given to color; there is nothing more to add. But what precaution is needed in order not to put the last word first.

Life is a country that the old have seen, and lived in. Those who have to travel through it can only learn from them.

Without duty, life is sort of boneless; it cannot hold itself together.

Men have torn up the roads which led to Heaven, and which all the world followed; now we have to make our own ladders.