One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.

A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.

The only true retirement is that of the heart; the only true leisure is the repose of the passions. To such persons it makes little difference whether they are young or old; and they die as they have lived, with graceful resignation.

Genius is native to the soil where it grows — is fed by the air, and warmed by the sun — and is not a hot - house plant or an exotic.

Avarice is the miser's dream, as fame is the poet's.

The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.

Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from, the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth.