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The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
To have ideas is to gather flowers. To think is to weave them into garlands.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages: they have learned to understand and be understood by all.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
There is a transcendent power in example. We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
In youth, we feel the richer for every new illusion; in mature years, for every one we lose.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
My soul defense against the natural horror which death inspires, is to love beyond it.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Thoughts," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Men are always invoking justice; and it is justice which should make them tremble.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Let our lives be pure as snow-fields, where our footsteps leave a mark, but not a stain.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
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.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
That mysterious stone on which Jacob reposed was faith. Let us, too, sleep on its breast, and our future greatness will be revealed to us.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
I love God's shadow better than man's light.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Thoughts," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
How can that gift leave a trace, which has left no void?
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Courtesy in the world is by no means a false and culpable pretense. It softens rather than dissimulates; and, on the whole, since it deceives nobody, it cannot be accused of falsehood.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Exaggerated expressions do not chord with the idea, and wound the ear of an exact mind.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
The smile upon the old man's lips, like the last rays of the setting sun, pierces the heart with a sweet and sad emotion. There is still a ray, there is still a smile; but they may be the last.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
In retirement, the passage of time seems accelerated. Nothing warns us of its flight. It is a wave which never murmurs, because there is no obstacle to its flow.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
No two persons ever read the same book, or saw the same picture.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Love sometimes elevates, creates new qualities, suspends the working of evil inclinations; but only for a day. Love, then, is an Oriental despot, whose glance lifts a slave from the dust, and then consigns him to it again.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
The solemn, wonderful, majestic ocean! It exalts, but only to crush me under a sense of its grandeur--boundless, everlasting, pitiless of my insignificance. Wherein does it differ from me? In immensity of breadth and depth. What does it give me? A sense of infinity, and of the abyss which divides me from it.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Thoughts," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Since there must be chimeras, why is not perfection the chimera of all men?
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers--all ready to disown it.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
It would seem that by our sorrows only are we called to a knowledge of the Infinite. Are we happy? The limits of life constrain us on all sides.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
There are minds constructed like the eyes of certain insects, which discern, with admirable distinctness, the most delicate lineaments and finest veins of the leaf which bears them, but are totally unable to take in the ensemble of the plant or shrub. When error has effected an entrance into such minds, it remains there impregnable, because no general view assists them in throwing off the chance impression of the moment.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
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.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Thoughts," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Strength alone knows conflict; weakness is below even defeat, and is born vanquished.
MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
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