“Just see how idiotic one can be! One reckons without the good God.”

“A good mayor is a useful person. How can you hold back when you have the chance to do good?”

“One sees qualities at a distance and defects at close range.”

“There are certain natures which cannot have love on one side without hatred on the other.”

“These are dark radiances. They have no suspicion that they are to be pitied. Certainly they are so. He who does not weep does not see. They are to be admired and pitied, as one would both pity and admire a being at once night and day, without eyes beneath his lashes but with a star on his brow.”

“One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.”

“His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one's own.”