Present unhappiness is selfish; past sorrow is compassionate.

Like those statues which must be made larger than "nature" in order that, viewed from below, or from a distance, they may appear to be of the "natural" size, certain truths must be "strained" in order that the public may form a just idea of them.

Evil often triumphs, but never conquers.

There are people who laugh to show their fine teeth; and there are those who cry to show their good hearts.

The historian must be a poet; not to find, but to find again; not to breathe life into beings, into imaginary deeds, but in order to re-animate and revive that which has been; to represent what time and space have placed at a distance from us.

There is a slowness in affairs which ripens them, and a slowness which rots them.

The city does not take away, neither does the country give, solitude; solitude is within us.