The aged love what is practical while impetuous youth longs only for what is dazzling.

Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live.

Nothing mortal is enduring, and there is nothing sweet which does not presently end in bitterness.

Life in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter.

Death is a sleep that ends our dreaming. Oh, that we may be allowed to wake before death wakes us.

Books come at my call and return when I desire them; they are never out of humor and they answer all my questions with readiness. Some present in review before me the events of past ages; others reveal to me the secrets of Nature. These teach me how to live, and those how to die; these dispel my melancholy by their mirth, and amuse me by their sallies of wit. Some there are who prepare my soul to suffer everything, to desire nothing, and to become thoroughly acquainted with itself. In a word, they open the door to all the arts and sciences.

In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair - my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did.