For man's greatest crime is to have been born.

Great events have sent before them their announcements.

No virtue can be real that has not been tried. The gold in the crucible alone is perfect; the loadstone tests the steel, and the diamond is tried by the diamond, while metals gleam the brighter in the furnace.

These flowers, which were splendid and sprightly, waking in the dawn of the morning, in the evening will be a pitiful frivolity, sleeping in the cold night's arms.

Even in dreams doing good is not wasted.

What law, what reason can deny that gift so sweet, so natural that God has given a stream, a fish, a beast, a bird?

What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough: for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.