He who first praises a book becomingly is next in merit to the author.

Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.

The habit of pleasing by flattery makes a language soft; the fear of offending by truth makes it circuitous and conventional.

Greatness, as we daily see it, is unsociable.

We cannot conquer fate and necessity, yet we can yield to them in such a manner as to be greater than if we could.

Nations, like individuals, interest us in their growth.

It has been my fortune to love in general those men most who have thought most differently from me, on subjects wherein others pardon no discordance. I think I have no more right to be angry with a man, whose reason has followed up a process different from what mine has, and is satisfied with the result, than with one who has gone to Venice while I am at Siena, and who writes to me that he likes the place.