The good-natured fool and the man of genius alone are capable--the one through weakness, the other by strength--of that equanimity of temper, that unvarying gentleness, which soften the asperities of daily life.

In the one, it is indifference or stolidity; in the other, indulgence and a portion of the divine thought of which he is the interpreter, and which needs to be consistent alike in principle and application.

Both natures are equally simple; but in one there is vacancy, in the other depth.

This is why clever women are disposed to take dull men as the small change for great ones.
Balthazar Claes carried his greatness into the lesser things of life.

He delighted in considering conjugal love as a magnificent work; and like all men of lofty aims who can bear nothing imperfect, he wished to develop all its beauties.