Between cultivated minds the first interview is the best.

The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it.

The simplest words,--we do not know what they mean except when we love and aspire.

Had I but written as many odes in praise of Muhammad and Ali as I have composed for King Mahmud, they would have showered a hundred blessings on me.

Bonaparte knew but one merit, and rewarded in one and the same way the good soldier, the good astronomer, the good poet, the good player.

The genius of reading and of gardening are antagonistic, like resinous and vitreous electricity. One is concentrative in sparks and shocks: the other is diffuse strength; so that each disqualifies its workman for the other's duties.

The secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will ever be.