The soul helps the body, and at certain moments raises it. It is the only bird that sustains its cage.

The most beautiful of altars, he said, is the soul of an unhappy creature consoled and thankfing God.

To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.

Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.

Astronomy, that micography of heaven, is the most magnificent of the sciences. ... Astronomy has its clear side and its luminous side; on its clear side it is tinctured with algebra, on its luminous side with poetry.

Taste is the common sense of genius.

It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!