The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.

You find yourself refreshed in the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.

Philosophy and the arts are but a manifestation of the intelligible ideas that move the public mind; and thus they become visible images of the nations whence they emanate.

The rarest attainment is to grow old happily and gracefully.

I keep working because I am quite sure that no particle of goodness or truth is ever really lost, however appearances may be to the contrary.

So easy it is to see the errors of past ages, so difficult to acknowledge our own!

If we really believed that those who are gone from us were as truly alive as ourselves, we could not invest the subject with such awful depth of gloom as we do. If we could imbue our children with distinct faith in immortality, we should never speak of people as dead, but passed into another world. We should speak of the body as a cast-off garment, which the wearer had outgrown; consecrated indeed by the beloved being that used it for a season, but of no value within itself.