He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

And I like those authors best whose scenes describe my own situation in life-- and the friends who are about me whose stories touch me with interest, from resembling my own homely existence.

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.

A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself; it is a child of solitude.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. The man incapable of appreciating her, she despises; and only to the apt, the pure, and the true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets.

Even people who are entirely strange and indifferent to one another will exchange confidences if they live together for a while, and a certain intimacy is bound to develop.