Mystery such as is given of God is beyond the power of human penetration, yet not in opposition to it.
Love is above the laws, above the opinion of men; it is the truth, the flame, the pure element, the primary idea of the moral world.
Love is the history of a woman's life; it is an episode in man's. [Fr., L'amour est l'histoire de la vie des femmes; c'est un episode dans celle des hommes.]
Truth and, by consequence, liberty, will always be the chief power of honest men.
Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious; it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious.
Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.
Whatever is natural admits of variety.
To live beneath sorrow, one must yield to it.
And all the bustle of departure - sometimes sad, sometimes intoxicating - just as fear or hope may be inspired by the new chances of coming destiny.
Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.
[The Germans] so easily confuse obstinacy with energy, and rudeness with firmness.
Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination.
Courage of soul is necessary for the triumphs of genius.
A Gothic building engenders true religion ... The light, falling through colored glass, the singular forms of the architecture, unite to give a silent image of that infinite mystery which the soul for ever feels, and never comprehends.
Liberty is the only idea which circulates with the human blood, in all ages, in all countries, and in all literature - liberty that is, and what cannot be separated from liberty, a love of country.
How much past there is in a life, however brief it be.
Good taste cannot supply the place of genius in literature, for the best proof of taste, when there is no genius, would be, not to write at all.
The egotism of woman is always for two.
We always cut our poetical theories to suit our talent.
It is obvious that the most despotic forms of social organization would be suitable for inert men who are satisfied with the situation fate has placed them in, and that the most abstract form of democratic theory would be practicable among sages guided only by their reason. The only problem is to what degree it is possible to excite or to contain the passions without endangering public happiness.
Self-love, so sensitive in its own cause, has rarely any sympathy to spare for others.
There are women vain of advantages not connected with their persons, such as birth, rank, and fortune; it is difficult to feel less the dignity of the sex. The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.
In women's destiny everything goes downhill except for thought, whose immortal nature it is to keep constantly rising.
Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies 'God in us.'
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