Life is comic or pitiful as soon as the high ends of being fade out of sight, and man becomes near-sighted, and can only attend towhat addresses the senses.

Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.

A poem is made up of thoughts, each of which filled the whole sky of the poet in its turn.

An orator or author is never successful till he has learned to make his words smaller than his ideas.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man, whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. There are always sunsets, and there is always genius; but only a few hours so serene that we can relish nature or criticism. The more or less depends on structure or temperament. Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung. Of what use is fortune or talent to a cold and defective store?