There are some people who think that they should be always mourning, that they should put a continual constraint upon themselves, and feel a disgust for those amusements to which they are obliged to submit. For my own part, I confess that I know not how to conform myself to these rigid notions. I prefer something more simple, which I also think would be more pleasing to God.

As long as anything in this world means anything to you, your freedom is only a word. You are like a bird that is held by a leash; you can only fly so far.

There were some who said that a man at the point of death was more free than all others, because death breaks every bond, and over the dead the united world has no power.

Be content with doing calmly the little which depends upon yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not.

Simplicity is that grace which frees the soul from all unnecessary reflections upon itself.

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.

All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.