Look not at the face, young girl, look at the heart. The heart of a handsome young man is often deformed. There are hearts in which love does not keep. Young girl, the pine is not beautiful; it is not beautiful like the poplar, but it keeps its foliage in winter.

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.

Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.

They adored each other; but still the permanent and the immutable subsist. We may love and laugh, pout, clasp hands, smile, and exchange endearments, but that does not affect eternity. Two lovers hide in the dusk of evening, amid flowers and the twittering of birds, and enchant each other with their hearts shinning in their eyes; but the stars in their course still circle through infinite space.

True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.

The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.

If a man has his throat cut in Paris, it's a murder. If 50,000 people are murdered in the east, it is a question.