The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

The growth and development of the soul is more important than power and glory.

Accept life, and you must accept regret.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one’s liberty.

There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify itself. It is persistence without a reasonable motive. It is the tenacity of self-love substituted for that of reason and conscience.

Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.

Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists.

So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.

We only understand that which already is within us.

Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

True humility is contentment.

Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.

Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, and virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.

Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.

Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.

Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past – a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.

Learn to… be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.

I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.

Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.

The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.