A man's vanity tells him what is honor, a man's conscience what is justice.

Modesty and diffidence make a man unfit for public affairs; they also make him unfit for brothels.

There is no easy path leading out of life, and few are the easy ones that lie within it.

Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature; for never is life so low or so little as when occupied with the present.

Solitude is the audience-chamber of God.

Wherever there is excessive wealth, there is also in the train of it excessive poverty.

A critic is never too severe when he only detects the faults of an author. But he is worse than too severe when, in consequence of this detection, be presumes to place himself on a level with genius.