What matters in a character is not whether one holds this or that opinion: what matters is how proudly one upholds it.

The more we know the better we forgive. Whoever feels deeply, feels for all who live.

Unhappy love freezes all our affections: our own souls grow inexplicable to us. More than we gained while we were happy we lose by the reverse.

There is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.

I do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.

What matters in a character is not whether one holds this or that opinion: what matters is how proudly one upholds it.

[To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.