It is not what talents or genius a man has, but how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship and character. The man thatstands by himself, the universe stands by him also.

The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.

If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false statement I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? The streetis as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie.

There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.

Let none presume to measure the irregularities of Michael Angelo or Socrates by village scales.

He, who loves the bristle of bayonets, only sees in their glitter what beforehand he feels in his hand.

The sea is masculine, the type of active strength. Look, what egg-shells are drifting all over it, each one, like ours, filled with men in ecstasies of terror, alternating with cockney conceit, as the sea is rough or smooth. Is this sad-colored circle an eternal cemetery?