We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.

A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth. Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will.

Words become luminous when the poet's finger has passed over them its phosphorescence.

Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.

Old age was naturally more honored in times when people could not know much more than what they had seen.

The mind's direction is more important than its progress.