One should choose for a wife only such a woman as he would choose for a friend, were she a man.

Religion must be loved as a kind of country and nursing-mother. It was religion that nourished our virtues, that showed us heaven, that taught us to walk in the path of duty.

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

It may be said that it is with our thoughts as with our flowers. Those whose expression is simple carry their seed with them; those that are double by their richness and pomp charm the mind, but produce nothing.

Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice.

We use up in the passions the stuff that was given us for happiness.

Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.