Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?

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

If one hour's work is enough to govern France, four minutes is all that is needed for Italy. There is no nation more easily frightened; even its poetic imagination predisposes it to fear, and they look upon power as on an image that fills them with terror.

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

In women's destiny everything goes downhill except for thought, whose immortal nature it is to keep constantly rising.

Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. - The shores of existence are strewn with them.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.