Men are always invoking justice; yet it is justice which should make them tremble.

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

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

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.

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

In retirement, the passage of time seems accelerated. Nothing warns us of its flight. It is a wave which never murmurs, because there is no obstacle to its flow.

The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril.