Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade: today it is the reverse.
There is a slowness in affairs which ripens them, and a slowness which rots them.
It is a very rare thing for a man of talent to succeed by his talent.
A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
We call that person who has lost his father, an orphan; and a widower that man who has lost his wife. But that man who has known the immense unhappiness of losing a friend, by what name do we call him? Here every language is silent and holds its peace in impotence.
What is love? two souls and one flesh; friendship? two bodies and one soul.
