Such is the active power of good temperament! Great sweetness of temper neutralizes such vast amounts of acid.

Our friends early appear to us as representatives of certain ideas, which they never pass or exceed. They stand on the brink of the ocean of thought and power, but they never take a single step that would bring them there.

If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.

All nobility in its beginnings was somebody's natural superiority.

Far off, men swell, bully, and threaten; bring them hand to hand, and they are feeble folk.

A great man scarcely knows how he dines, how he dresses; but without railing or precision, his living is natural and poetic.

And yet--it is not beauty that inspires the deepest passion. Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. Beauty, without expression, tires.