Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use.

Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form.

God has set his intentions in the flowers, in the dawn, in the spring, it is his will that we should love.

The miserable's name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages.

To be wicked does not insure prosperity - for the inn did not succeed well.

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. . . . For half a century I have been writing thoughts in prose, verse, history, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song. I have tried them all, but I feel I have not said a thousandth part of that which is within me. When I go down to the grave, I can say "I have finished my day's work," but I cannot say "I have finished my life's work."

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.