Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

A beautiful woman is a picture which drives all beholders nobly mad.

I have been told by persons of experience in matters of taste, that the fashions follow a law of gradation, and are never arbitrary. The new mode is always only a step onward in the same direction as the last mode; and a cultivated eye is prepared for and predicts the new fashion.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

The hero sees that the event is ancillary: it must follow him.

The household is a school of power. There, within the door, learn the tragi-comedy of human life.

Pride eradicates all vices but itself.