Tombs decked by the arts can scarcely represent death as a formidable enemy; we do not, indeed, like the ancients, carve sports and dances in the sarcophagus, but thought is diverted from the bier by works that tell of immortality, even from the altar of death.

The sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

Love is the symbol of eternity.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

However old a conjugal union, it still garners some sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom.

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable.