All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive.

[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach.

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

What is love, if it can calculate and provide against its own decay?

The life of famous men was more glorious in antiquity; the life of obscure men is happier with the moderns.

There is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.

Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.