The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth

The world more often rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself

Age is a tyrant who forbids at the penalty of life all the pleasures of youth

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name

In the adversity of our best friends we often find something that is not exactly displeasing

I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something I don't know where I would be without it

Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully

We often pass from love to ambition, but we hardly ever return from ambition to love

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire