One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.

The earlier works of a man of genius are always preferred to the newer ones, in order to prove that he is going down instead of up.

What would be ugly in a garden constitutes beauty in a mountain.

Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.

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.

Youth, even in its sorrows, always has a brilliancy of its own.

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.