The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.

What matters in a character is not whether one holds this or that opinion: what matters is how proudly one upholds it.

Nature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence.

Love is admiring with the heart. And admiring is loving with the mind.

a perfect piece of architecture kindles that aimless reverie, which bears the soul we know not whither.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks.