Rosalia de Castro

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Any enlightenment which requires to be authenticated, certified, recognized, congratulated, is false, or at least incomplete.

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

You’ll never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

We must substitute courage for caution.

I do not like work even when someone else does it.

Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life… I wanted to live so sturdily and so Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life… to drive life into a corner to know it by experience and be able to give an account of it in my next excursion.