Sophie Swetchine Quotes

The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.

We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.

There is a transcendent power in example.

To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.

Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.

The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.

The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master.

In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose.

He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving has but glanced at the joys of charity.

Strength alone knows conflict, weakness is born vanquished.

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.

Since there must be chimeras, why is not perfection the chimera of all men?

A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend.

We recognize the action of God in great things: we exclude it in small. We forget that the Lord of eternity is also the Lord of the hour.

Let us not fail to scatter along our pathway the seeds of kindness and sympathy. Some of them will doubtless perish; but if one only lives, it will perfume our steps and rejoice our eyes.

We are all of us, in this world, more or less like St. January, whom the inhabitants of Naples worship one day, and pelt with baked apples the next.

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time.

By becoming unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so.

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.

To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.

One must be a somebody before they can have an enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force.

Youth should be a savings bank.

A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion is old at the end of three months.

Might we not say to the confused voices which sometimes arise from the depths of our being: "Ladies, be so kind as to speak only four at a time?"

There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.

Loving souls are like paupers. They live on what is given them.

Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.

Repentance is accepted remorse.

Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others.

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick.

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.

The best of lessons, for a good many people, would be to listen at a keyhole. It is a pity for such that the practice is dishonorable.

Death is the justification of all the ways of the Christian, the last end of all his sacrifices, the touch of the Great Master which completes the picture.

The injustice of men subserves the justice of God, and often His mercy.

The heart has always the pardoning power.

Friendship is like those ancient altars where the unhappy, and even the guilty, found a sure asylum.

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.

There are but two future verbs which man may appropriate confidently and without pride: "I shall suffer," and "I shall die.

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together.

In this world of change naught which comes stays and naught which goes is lost.

Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling.

Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery.

All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness; while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points.

People read every thing nowadays, except books.

The beings who appear cold, but are only timid, adore where they dare to love.

The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume.

True poets, like great artists, have scarcely any childhood, and no old age.

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we--we divine it.

God Himself allows certain faults; and often we say, "I have deserved to err; I have deserved to be ignorant.