There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily. No great work has ever been based on hatred and contempt. On the contrary, there is not a single true work of art that has not in the end added to the inner freedom of each person who has known and loved it.

There is no legitimacy on earth but in a government which is the choice of the nation.

Many have been ruined by their fortunes, and many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it the great have become little, and the little great.

The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.

There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.

Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it sparkles in the setting of modest self-distrust; and never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive any injury.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

To be able to bear provocation is an argument of great reason, and to forgive it of a great mind.

Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.