The education of life perfects the thinking mind, but depraves the frivolous.

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

[On Napoleon:] One has the impression of an imperious wind blowing about one's ears when one is near that man.

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

... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.

It seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.

Nothing recalls the past like music.