Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished.

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

there is not enough interest in life to spread over twenty-four hours when one can't sleep.

... 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.

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight.

intellect is a sin that must be atoned for by leading exactly the life of those who have none.