There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another, and lose themselves in a dull indifference.

Could we perfect human nature, we might also expect a perfect state of things.

You are, when all is done-just what you are.

Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.

Every one must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.

Time flies, and what is past is done.

A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.

Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.

A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.