We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past.

It is a little stream, which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course.

Real sorrow is almost as difficult to discover as real poverty. An instinctive delicacy hides the rays of the one and the wounds of the other.

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together.

A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion is old at the end of three months.

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Under the conditions of our climate, shadow gives light its worth; sternness enhances mildness; solemnity, splendor. Varying proportions of size support and subserve one another.