All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness; while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points.

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time.

There are but two future verbs which man may appropriate confidently and without pride: "I shall suffer," and "I shall die.

Pride dries the tears of anger and vexation; humility, those of grief. The one is indignant that we should suffer; the other calms us by the reminder that we deserve nothing else.

Antiquity is a species of aristocracy with which it is not easy to be on visiting terms.

Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others.

Men are always invoking justice; yet it is justice which should make them tremble.