We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love

However old a conjugal union, it still garners some sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom.

All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive.

[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.

The entire social order ... is arrayed against a woman who wants to rise to a man's reputation.

Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.

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