Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal.

Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.

Emotion is always new.

...But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.

One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.

There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.

Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime.