My God, grant that my bounty may be a clear and transparent river, flowing from pure charity, and uncontaminated by self-love, ambition, or interest. Thanks are due not to me, but Thee, from whom all I possess is derived. And what are the paltry gifts for which my neighbor forgets to thank me, compared with the immense blessings for which I have so often forgotten to be grateful to Thee!

It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.

The lion is ashamed, it's true, when he hunts with the fox.

The superstition in which we were brought up never loses its power over us, even after we understand it.

Where wildness and disorder are visible in the dance, there Satan, death and all kinds of mischief are likewise upon the floor. For this reason I could wish that the dance of death were painted on the walls of all ball-rooms in order to warn the dancers, not by the levity of their deportment, to provoke the God of righteousness to visit them with a sudden judgment.

What can the Creator see with greater pleasure than a happy creature?

Resist as much as thou wilt; heaven's ways are heaven's ways.