One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

I do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.

Morality must guide calculation, and calculation must guide politics.

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

[On Russia:] In every way, there is something gigantic about this people: ordinary dimensions have no applications whatever to it. I do not mean by this that true greatness and stability are never met with; but their boldness, their imaginativeness knows no bounds. With them everything is colossal rather than well-proportioned, audacious rather than well-considered, and if they do not attain their goals, it is because they exceed them.

O memory, thou bitter sweet,--both a joy and a scourge!