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.
Beauty attracts us men but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed, beside, with gold and silver, it attracts with tenfold power.
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.
Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.
Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.
Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.
The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering galleries, they are clearly heard at the end, and by posterity.
Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter down like a hailstorm.
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.