Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin.

Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.

To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things.

I can find no words for what I feel. My consciousness is withdrawn into itself; I hear my heart beating, and my life passing. It seems to me that I have become a statue on the banks of the river of time, that I am the spectator of some mystery, and shall issue from it old, or no longer capable of age.

A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.