We must not say that every mistake is a foolish one.

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

I look upon the pleasure we take in a garden as one of the most innocent delights in human life.

There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of literature; of that branch of literature, I mean, which enables us to discover the infinity of things, the immensity of Nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is that branch which has taught us religion, moderation, magnanimity, and that has rescued the soul from obscurity; to make her see all things above and below, first and last, and between both; it is this that furnishes us wherewith to live well and happily, and guides us to pass our lives without displeasure and without offence.

What is more agreeable than one's home?

The well-known old remark of Cato, who used to wonder how two soothsayers could look one another in the face without laughing.

The freedom of poetic license.