Who understands much forgives much. To understand everything makes us very forgiving.

It is obvious that the most despotic forms of social organization would be suitable for inert men who are satisfied with the situation fate has placed them in, and that the most abstract form of democratic theory would be practicable among sages guided only by their reason. The only problem is to what degree it is possible to excite or to contain the passions without endangering public happiness.

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

Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished.

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

Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.

O memory, thou bitter sweet,--both a joy and a scourge!