Sophie Swetchine Quotes

Might we not say to the confused voices which sometimes arise from the depths of our being: "Ladies, be so kind as to speak only four at a time?"

What I value most next to eternity is time.

Suspicion has its dupes, as well as credulity.

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.

God Himself allows certain faults; and often we say, "I have deserved to err; I have deserved to be ignorant.

The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it.

Indifferent souls never part. Impassioned souls part, and return to one another, because they can do no better.

Poor humanity!--so dependent, so insignificant, and yet so great.

Let us not fail to scatter along our pathway the seeds of kindness and sympathy. Some of them will doubtless perish; but if one only lives, it will perfume our steps and rejoice our eyes.

True poets, like great artists, have scarcely any childhood, and no old age.

We recognize the action of God in great things: we exclude it in small. We forget that the Lord of eternity is also the Lord of the hour.

Let our lives be pure as snowfields, where our steps leave a mark but no stain.

Love enters the heart unawares: takes precedence of all the emotions--or, at least, will be second to none--and even reflection becomes its accomplice. While it lives, it renders blind; and when it has struck its roots deep only itself can shake them. It reminds one of hospitality as practiced among the ancients. The stranger was received upon the threshold of the half-open door, and introduced into the sanctuary reserved for the Penates. Not until every attention had been lavished upon him did the host ask his name; and the question was sometimes deferred till the very moment of departure.

The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.

To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.

Miracles are God's coups d'etat.

Love sometimes elevates, creates new qualities, suspends the working of evil inclinations; but only for a day. Love, then, is an Oriental despot, whose glance lifts a slave from the dust, and then consigns him to it again.

Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference.

Indulgence is lovely in the sinless; toleration, adorable in the pious and believing heart.

One must be a somebody before they can have an enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force.

A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion is old at the end of three months.

Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.

It would seem that by our sorrows only are we called to a knowledge of the Infinite. Are we happy? The limits of life constrain us on all sides.

As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts.

There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.

My sole defense against the natural horror which death inspires is to love beyond it.

Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling.

All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness; while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points.

There are but two future verbs which man may appropriate confidently and without pride: "I shall suffer," and "I shall die.

Our faults afflict us more than our good deeds console. Pain is ever uppermost in the conscience as in the heart.

He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving has but glanced at the joys of charity.

The law of common sense.

Pride dries the tears of anger and vexation; humility, those of grief. The one is indignant that we should suffer; the other calms us by the reminder that we deserve nothing else.

Time is the shower of Danae; each drop is golden.

It is a little stream, which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course.

There is a transcendent power in example.

A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers--all ready to disown it.

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we--we divine it.

I can understand the things that afflict mankind, but I often marvel at God those which console. An atom may wound, but God alone can heal.

When we see the shameful fortunes amassed in all quarters of the globe, are we not impelled to exclaim that Judas' thirty pieces of silver have fructified across the centuries?

There is nothing at all in life, except what we put there.

The heart has always the pardoning power.

Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others.

I love victory, but I love not triumph.

Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.

America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty.

Loving souls are like paupers. They live on what is given them.

The Christian's God is a God of metamorphoses. You cast grief into his bosom: you draw thence, peace. You cast in despair: 'tis hope that rises to the surface. It is a sinner whose heart he moves. It is a saint who returns him thanks.