He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

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

The ideal, after all, is true than the real: for the ideal is the eternal element in perishable things.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Faith is certitude without proofs ... Faith is a sentiment, for it is a hope; it is an instinct, for it precedes all outward instruction.

Let mystery have its place in you ; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring.

Life is but a daily oscillation between revolt and submission.