Admiration and familiarity are strangers. - George Sand

[...], y su melodía, como una voz de los elementos, se alzaba al cielo sin más poesía que la del sentimiento. No tenía ya miedo Valentina, porque se hallaba bajo el hechizo de aquel misterioso canto; y era tan dulce la sensación que le causaba, que ni aun le ocurrió admirarse de oírle en aquel sitio y aquella hora.
Cesó el canto, y Valentina creyó que lo había soñado.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self when one does not lack wit and is familiar with all the niceties of language. Language is a prostitute queen who descends and rises to all roles. Disguises herself, arrays herself in fine apparel, hides her head and effaces herself; an advocate who has an answer for everything, who has always foreseen everything, and who assumes a thousand forms in order to be right. The most honorable of men is he who thinks best and acts best, but the most powerful is he who is best able to talk and write

One is happy once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.