winter is past, and we have a prospect of spring that is superior to spring itself.

I dislike clocks with second-hands; they cut up life into too small pieces.

if I inflict wounds, I heal them.

I fear nothing so much as a man who is witty all day long.

Not to find pleasure in serious reading gives a pastel coloring to the mind.

[After being corrected by a grammarian for using the feminine pronoun instead of the pseudogeneric masculine:] As you please, but for my part, if I were to express myself so, I should fancy I had a beard.

The heart never becomes wrinkled.