James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Madame Swetchine
A man must be healthy before he can be holy.
Error, sterile in itself, produces only by means of the portion of truth which it contains.
In a healthy state of the organism all wounds have a tendency to heal.
In the world’s opinion marriage, as in a play, winds up everything; whereas it is, in fact, the beginning of everything.
La jeunesse devrait être une caisse d’épargne—Youth ought to be a savings’ bank.
Liberty has no actual rights which are not grafted upon justice.
Liberty must be a mighty thing, for by it God punishes and rewards nations.
One must be somebody in order to have an enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force.
Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.
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.
Repentance is accepted remorse.
Resignation is putting God between one’s self and one’s grief.
Strength alone knows conflict; weakness is below even defeat, and is born vanquished.
Strength needs support far more than weakness. A feather sustains itself long in the air.
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 dishonourable.
The ideal of friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.
The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume.
There are two ways of attaining an important end—force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time.
There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.
To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.
Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.
We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past.
We are often prophets to others only because we are our own historians.
We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us.
We expect everything, and are prepared for nothing.
We must labour unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious.
We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.
When fresh sorrows have caused us to take some steps in the right way, we may not complain. We have invested in a life annuity, but the income remains.
“Who will guard the guards?” says a Latin verse,—“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” I answer, “The enemy.” It is the enemy who keeps the sentinel watchful.
Years do not make sages; they only make old men.
Youth should be a savings-bank.