You know that he who would be the greatest among you must become the servant of all.
Celebrate within yourself that wonderful treasure. . . true kindness.
nature has not changed. The night is still unsullied, the stars still twinkle, and the wild thyme smells as sweetly now as it did then. . . We may be afflicted and unhappy, but no one can take from us the sweet delight which is nature's gift to those who love her and her poetry.
If they are ignorant, they are despised, if learned, mocked. In love they are reduced to the status of courtesans. As wives they are treated more as servants than as companions. Men do not love them: they make use of them, they exploit them, and expect, in that way, to make them subject to the law of fidelity.
When I tried to draw near, you dissolved into air before my lips could touch you. . .
faith is like love; when you want it you can't find it, and you find it when you least expect it.
These tears do me good, they have watered the parched place; perhaps my heart will grow again there!
One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.
The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains.
You may think things didn't change much after the 60s 'revolution' - but they did. The levels of prescriptive disapproval for anyone who stepped outside the norm receded.
Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven't said enough. To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.