A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

The Americans have no faith, they rely on the power of a dollar; they are deaf to sentiment.

A garden is like those pernicious machineries which catch a man's coat-skirt or his hand, and draw in his arm, his leg , and his whole body to irresistible destruction.

The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative men.

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.

Everything in nature goes by law, and not by luck.