Every bird which flies has the thread of the infinite in its claw. Germination includes the hatching of a meteor and the tap of a swallow's bill breaking the egg, and it leads forward the birth of an earth-worm and the advent of Socrates.

As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer.

A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children." from chapter VIII of Les Miserables

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.

What is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.

What makes night within us may leave stars.

The left-handed are precious; they take places which are inconvenient for the rest.