I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained for me to die.

Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character," said the count; "on the steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.

On what slender threads do life and fortune hang.

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

For in those tacit understandings which maintain the bond of family union, the mother is really the mistress of her daughter only upon the condition of continually presenting herself to her as a model of wisdom and type of perfection.

God is full of mercy for everyone, as He has been towards you. He is a father before He is a judge.

Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle.