“Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure when with the masculine rhymes mingled the feminine are.”

Sometimes we may learn more from a man’s errors, than from his virtues.

Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine.

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing.

Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person’s mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit.

For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.

The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds.

All things come round to him who will but wait.

For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.

Talk not of wasted affection – affection never was wasted.

The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art.

It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar.

The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.

I was five years old; I got addicted to being on stage. I felt like it was the most wonderful place on Earth, performing in front of an audience, who in this case were a bunch of classmates, kids my age.

Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.

Helping others is a question of being genuine and projecting that genuineness to others. This way of being doesn’t have to have a title or a name particularly. It is just being ultimately decent.

Work is making a living out of being bored.

Courage is necessary to make being and becoming possible.

Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his world.

For the first time, as a family, they appeared to have an instinct of being in contact, with some strange and unsafe thing.

The burden of poverty isn’t just that you don’t always have the things you need: it’s the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you’d do anything to lift that burden.