The most certain mode of making people content with us is to make them content with themselves.

Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera seria; and in Germany a melodrama.

... I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue.

A German writer observes: "The noblest characters only show themselves in their real light. All others act comedy with their fellow-men even unto the grave.

One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.

Flowers are the bright remembrances of youth; they waft us back, with their bland odorous breath, the joyous hours that only young life knows, ere we have learnt that this fair earth hides graves.

Life would be as insupportable without the prospect of death, as it would be without sleep.