We talk on principal, but act on motivation.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Immoderate power, like other intemperance, leaves the progeny weaker and weaker, until nature as in compassion covers it with her mantle and it is seen no more.

Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.

As there are some flowers which you should smell but slightly to extract all that is pleasant in them ... so there are some men with whom a slight acquaintance is quite sufficient to draw out all that is agreeable; a more intimate one would be unsafe and unsatisfactory.

Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.

As the pearl ripens in the obscurity of its shell, so ripens in the tomb all the fame that is truly precious.