How strangely do we diminish a thing as soon as we try to express it in words.

An obstacle is not a discouragement. It may become one, but only with our own consent. So long as we refuse to be discouraged, we cannot be discouraged.

Wisdom requires no form; her beauty must vary, as varies the beauty of flame. She is no motionless goddess, for ever couched on her throne.

Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature.

The living are just the dead on holiday

To be good we must needs have suffered; but perhaps it is necessary to have caused suffering before we can become better.

It is far more important that one's life should be perceived than that it should be transformed; for no sooner has it been perceived, than it transforms itself of its own accord.