Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.

I loved [fairy stories] so, and my mother weighed down by grief had given up telling me them. At Nohant I found Mmes. d'Ardony's and Perrault's tales in old editions which became my chief joy for five or six years ... I've never read them since, but I could tell each tale straight through, and I don't think anything in all one's intellecutal life can be compared to these delights of imagination.

Years do not always make age.

I needn't tell you that success and failure prove nothing - the whole thing is a lottery. It's pleasant to succeed; but for a philosophic mind it oughtn't to be very upsetting to fail.

Experience is always a trustworthy guide; it may not tell you everything, but it never lies.

To forgive a fault in another is more sublime than to be faultless one's self.

faith is like love; when you want it you can't find it, and you find it when you least expect it.