On the whole, however, it is only out of pride or gross ignorance, or cowardice, that we refuse to see in the present the lineaments of times to come.

Translating is writing.

I think still that someone wiser than I might well have remained happy till his death.

There are books which one should not attempt before having passed the age of forty.

All happiness is a form of innocence.

The memory of most men is an abandoned cemetery where lie, unsung and unhonored, the dead whom they have ceased to cherish. Any lasting grief is reproof to their neglect.

Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.