Sophie Swetchine Quotes

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

Where there is a question of economy, I prefer privation.

People read every thing nowadays, except books.

Real sorrow is almost as difficult to discover as real poverty. An instinctive delicacy hides the rays of the one and the wounds of the other.

Prayer has a right to the word "ineffable." It is an hour of outpourings which words cannot express,--of that interior speech which we do not articulate, even when we employ it.

The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master.

In this world of change naught which comes stays and naught which goes is lost.

Old age is the night of life, as night is the old age of the day. Still, night is full of magnificence; and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day.

In youth, grief comes with a rush and overflow, but it dries up, too, like the torrent. In the winter of life it remains a miserable pool, resisting all evaporation.

The inventory of my faith for this lower world is soon made out. I believe in Him who made it.

We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past.

In a healthy state of the organism all wounds have a tendency to heal.

Piety softens all that courage bears.

Truth only is prolific. Error, sterile in itself, produces only by means of the portion of truth which it contains. It may have offspring, but the life which it gives, like that of the hybrid races, cannot be transmitted.

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together.

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time.

If we look closely at this earth, where God seems so utterly forgotten, we shall find that it is He, after all, who commands the most fidelity and the most love.

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.

The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack

Consolation heaps without contact; somewhat like the blessed air which we need but to breathe.

Feeling loves a subdued light.

Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.

Impassioned characters never attain their mark till they have overshot it.

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies.

Those who make us happy are always thankful to us for being so; their gratitude is the reward of their benefits.

Friendship is like those ancient altars where the unhappy, and even the guilty, found a sure asylum.

Liberty must be a mighty thing; for by it God punishes and rewards nations.

Resignation is, to some extent, spoiled for me by the fact that it is so entirely conformable to the laws of common-sense. I should like just a little more of the supernatural in the practice of my favorite virtue.

The very might of the human intellect reveals its limits.

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Under the conditions of our climate, shadow gives light its worth; sternness enhances mildness; solemnity, splendor. Varying proportions of size support and subserve one another.

We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us.

Virtue is the daughter of Religion; Repentance, her adopted child,--a poor orphan who, without the asylum which she offers, would not know where to hide her sole treasure, her tears!

There are minds constructed like the eyes of certain insects, which discern, with admirable distinctness, the most delicate lineaments and finest veins of the leaf which bears them, but are totally unable to take in the ensemble of the plant or shrub. When error has effected an entrance into such minds, it remains there impregnable, because no general view assists them in throwing off the chance impression of the moment.

The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume.

He who has ceased to enjoy his friend's superiority has ceased to love him.

The injustice of men subserves the justice of God, and often His mercy.

Faith, amid the disorders of a sinful life, is like the lamp burning in an ancient tomb.

There is nothing steadfast in life but our memories. We are sure of keeping intact only that which we have lost.

We are often prophets to others only because we are our own historians.

We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.

The best of lessons, for a good many people, would be to listen at a keyhole. It is a pity for such that the practice is dishonorable.

Death is the justification of all the ways of the Christian, the last end of all his sacrifices, the touch of the Great Master which completes the picture.

A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend.

There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply.

Life grows darker as we go on, till only one pure light is left shining on it; and that is faith. Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revelations.

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.

We are all of us, in this world, more or less like St. January, whom the inhabitants of Naples worship one day, and pelt with baked apples the next.

God has prohibited despair.