The sweetest souls, like the sweetest flowers, soon canker in cities, and no purity is rarer there than the purity of delight.

No thoroughly occupied person was ever found really miserable.

Nations, like individuals, interest us in their growth.

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.

A little praise is good for a shy temper; it teaches it to rely on the kindness of others.

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warm'd both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

Next in criminality to him who violates the laws of his country, is he who violates the language.