A strange thing, the human heart in general, and woman's heart in particular.
I felt somehow happy to be so high above the world - a childish feeling, I grant, but we can't help becoming children as we leave social conventions behind and come nearer to nature. All life's experience is shed from us and the soul becomes anew what it once was and will surely be again
A childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire from the conventions of society and draw close to nature, we involuntarily become children: each attribute acquired by experience falls away from the soul, which becomes anew such as it was once and will surely be again.
The story of a man's soul, however trivial, can be more interesting and instructive than the story of a whole nation
No good ever becomes of a man who forgets an old friend
I am not capable of true friendship. One of the two friends is always the slave of the other, although, often, neither of the two admits this to himself.
De geschiedenis van een mensenziel , zelfs van de allergeringste, is haast belangwekkender en leerrijker dan de geschiedenis van een geheel volk, vooral wanneer zij het resultaat is van een heldere geest, en wanneer zij geschreven is zonder ijdele wens bewondering en sympathie op te wekken.
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