“On what slender threads do life and fortune hang.”

Moral wounds have this peculiarity – they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.

The wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted.

I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.

You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.

Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

Everyone knows that drunkards and lovers have a protecting diety.

Your bitter memories still have time to turn into sweet ones.

So heavy is the chain of wedlock that it needs two to carry it, and sometimes three.

The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.

Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.

He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

When a man resolves to avenge himself, he should first of all tear out the heart from his breast.

Happiness is egotistical.

Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory and the second philosophy.

It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising.

Fortune gives many too much, but none enough.

Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.

Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.

Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.

Sovereignty is easily preserved by the very arts by which it was originally created. When, however, energy has given place to indifference, and temperance and justice to passion and arrogance, then as the morals change so changes fortune.

Fear of the future is worse than one’s present fortune.

Good fortune is as light as a feather, but nobody knows how to pick it up. Misfortune is as heavy as earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of it’s way.

War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.