He is the best gentleman that is the son of his own deserts, and not the degenerated heir of another's virtue.

I only take a half share in the civil war; I am willing to die, I am not willing to kill.

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.

Death belongs to God alone; by what right do men touch that unknown thing?

Work is the law of life, and to reject it as boredom is to submit to it as torment.

The reduction of the universe to the compass of a single being, and the extension of a single being until it reaches God - that is love. Love is the salute of the angels to the stars. How sad is the heart when rendered sad by love! How great is the void created by the absence of the being who alone fills the world.

When grace combines with wrinkles, it is admirable. There is an indescribable light of dawn about intensely happy old age. . . . The young person is handsome, but the old, superb.