But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues?" Maximilien asked. "Because, my friend, I judge it by the past.

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

The wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted.

Capricious and unfaithful, the king wished to be called Louis the Just and Louis the Chaste. Posterity will find a difficulty in understanding this character, which history explains only by facts and never by reason.

God is always the last resource.

There are people who are willing to suffer and swallow their tears at leisure, and God will no doubt reward them in heaven for their resignation; but those who have the will to struggle strike back at fate in retaliation for the blows they receive.

...joy takes a strange effect at times, it seems to oppress us almost the same as sorrow.