But there are not a few who would be indignant at having their belief in God questioned, who yet seem greatly to fear imagining Him better than He is.

It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. I think he must prefer quality to quantity.

Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale.

We are not made for law, we are made for love.

It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.

Here I should like to remark, for the sake of princes and princesses in general, that it is a low and contemptible thing to refuse to confess a fault, or even an error. If a true princess has done wrong, she is always uneasy until she has had an opportunity of throwing the wrongness away from her by saying: 'I did it; and I wish I had not; and I am sorry for having done it.

What God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about. Everything He gives you to do, you must do as well as ever you can, and that is the best possible preparation for what He may want you to do next. If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what came next.