We shall have money for it, which we had not this year; and now the disappointment's over, I don't care.
The heat at Florence was very bearable, and our child grew into his roses lost at Rome, and we have lived a very tranquil and happy six months on our own sofas and chairs, among our own nightingales and fireflies.

There's an inclination in me to turn round with my Penini and say, 'I'm an Italian.' Certainly both light and love seem stronger with me at Florence than elsewhere....
The war! The alliance is the consolation; the necessity is the justification.

For the rest, one shuts one's eyes and ears--the rest is too horrible.

What do you mean by fearing that the war itself may not be all the evil of the war?
I expect, on the contrary, a freer political atmosphere after this thunder.

Louis Napoleon is behaving very tolerably well, won't you admit, after all?
And I don't look to a treason at the end as certain of his enemies do, who are reduced to a 'wait, wait, and you'll see.' There's a friend of mine here, a traditional anti-Gallican, and very lively in his politics until the last few months.