There is no second country for an Englishman, except a ship and the sea.

Love is above the laws, above the opinion of men; it is the truth, the flame, the pure element, the primary idea of the moral world.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.

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

When at eve, at the bounding of the landscape, the heavens appear to recline so slowly on the earth, imagination pictures beyond the horizon an asylum of hope, - a native land of love; and nature seems silently to repeat that man is immortal.

Between God and love, I recognize no mediator but my conscience.