Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.
Enthusiasm signifies ‘God in us.’
Nothing recalls the past like music.
Love is admiring with the heart. And admiring is loving with the mind.
Who understands much forgives much. To understand everything makes us very forgiving.
Of all human sentiments, enthusiasm creates the most happiness; it is the only sentiment in fact which gives real happiness, the only sentiment which can help us to bear our human destiny in any situation in which we may find ourselves.
The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
When we destroy an old prejudice, we have need of a new virtue.
Men do not change; they unmask themselves.
The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.
The success of any man with any woman is apt to displease even his best friends.
We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love
Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?
The greatest happiness is to transform one’s feelings into action.
Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.
Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man’s power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.
We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. – The shores of existence are strewn with them.
It is not enough to forgive; one must forget.
Poetry is the apotheosis of sentiment.
It is difficult to grow old gracefully.
[To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.
Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.
A voyage without companionship, that is to say without conversation, is one of the saddest pleasures of life.
