If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the road to self-knowledge.
Universal love is a glove without fingers, which fits all bands alike and none closely; but true affection is like a glove with fingers, which fits one hand only, and sits close to that one.
Without God there is for mankind no purpose, no goal, no hope, only a wavering future, an eternal dread of every darkness.
The romance of life begins and ends with two blank pages. Age and extreme old age.
How narrow our souls become when absorbed in any present good or ill! It is only the thought of the future that makes them great.
Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.
In women everything is heart, even the head.
Whenever, at a party, I have been in the mood to study fools, I have always looked for a great beauty: they always gather round her like flies around a fruit stall.
Two aged men, that had been foes for life, Met by a grave, and wept – and in those tears They washed away the memory of their strife; Then wept again the loss of all those years.
As winter strips the leaves from around us, so that we may see the distant regions they formerly concealed, so old age takes away our enjoyments only to enlarge the prospect of the coming eternity.
Woman and men of retiring timidity are cowardly only in dangers which affect themselves, but the first to rescue when others are in danger.
Variety of mere nothings gives more pleasure than uniformity of something.
Man has here two and a half minutes-one to smile, one to sigh, and a half to love: for in the midst of this minute he dies.
Only deeds give strength to life, only moderation gives it charm.
Humankind’s chief fault is that they have so many small ones.
Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.
Man’s feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.
Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm. When a storm approaches thee, be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.
The Infinate has sowed His name in the heavens in burning stars, but on earth He has sowed His name in tender flowers.
Like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, the fiercest hatred is silent.