Cruelty in all countries is the companion of anger; but there is only one, and never was another on the globe, where she coquets both with anger and mirth.

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.

Something of the severe hath always been appertaining to order and to grace; and the beauty that is not too liberal is sought the most ardently, and loved the longest.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.

It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires.

Ambition does not see the earth she treads on: The rock and the herbage are of one substance to her.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.