Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.

• Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
• Works of imagination should be written in very plain language the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.
• What comes from the heart goes to the heart.
• There is one art of which man should be master, the art of reflection.
• Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism.
• The most happy marriage I can imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.
• What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?
• The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.
• What is an epigram A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul.
• What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul.