Speech is but the incorporation of thought.
Every modulated sound is not a song, and every voice that executes a beautiful air does not sing. Singing should enchant. But to produce this effect there must be a quality of soul and voice which is by no means common even with great singers.
Fully to understand a grand and beautiful thought requires, perhaps, as much time as to conceive it.
In the interchange of thought use no coin but gold and silver.
It may be said that it is with our thoughts as with our flowers. Those whose expression is simple carry their seed with them; those that are double by their richness and pomp charm the mind, but produce nothing.
Attention is like a narrow mouthed vessel; pour into it what you have to say cautiously, and, as it were, drop by drop.
Only just the right quantum of wit should be put into a book; in conversation a little excess is allowable.
The voice is a human sound which nothing inanimate can perfectly imitate. It has an authority and an insinuating property which writing lacks. It is not merely so much air, but air modulated and impregnated with life.
Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.
It would be next to impossible to discover a handsome woman who was not also a vain woman.
Truth takes the stamp of the souls it enters. It is rigorous and rough in arid souls, but tempers and softens itself in loving natures.
It is easier to be mistaken about the true than the beautiful.
To see the world is to judge the judges.
Imitate time; it destroys everything slowly; it undermines, it wears away, it detaches, it does not wrench.
Thoughts there are, that need no embodying, no form, no expression. It is enough to hint at them vaguely; a word, and they are heard and seen.
The simple-hearted and sincere never do more than half deceive themselves.
I quit Paris unwillingly, because I must part from my friends; and I quit the country unwillingly, because I must part from myself.
In order to be happy, think of the ills you have been spared.
In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.
Those readiest to criticise are often least able to appreciate.