Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.
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.
The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.
Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.
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.
The darkness of death is like the evening twilight it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying.
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.
Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.