Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.

I have found it a singular luxury to talk across the pond to a companion on the opposite side.

Letter-writing too often degenerates into a communicating of facts, and not of truths; of other men's deeds and not our thoughts.What are the convulsions of a planet, compared with the emotions of the soul? or the rising of a thousand suns, if that is not enlightened by a ray?

It is not in vain that man speaks to man. This is the value of literature.

What means the fact--which is so common, so universal--that some soul that has lost all hope for itself can inspire in another listening soul an infinite confidence in it, even while it is expressing its despair?

The gods cannot misunderstand, man cannot explain.

Love is the profoundest of secrets. Divulged, even to the beloved, it is no longer Love. As if it were merely I that loved you. When love ceases, then it is divulged.

Knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own.