Sophie Swetchine Quotes

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

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

The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it.

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.

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick.

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together.

The heart has always the pardoning power.

It is a little stream, which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course.

I study much, and the more I study, the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them.

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.

Poor humanity!
so dependent, so insignificant, and yet so great.

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

Our faults afflict us more than our good deeds console. Pain is ever uppermost in the conscience as in the heart.

Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages; they have learned to understand and be understood by all.

People read every thing nowadays, except books.

True poets, like great artists, have scarcely any childhood, and no old age.

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

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

The beings who appear cold, but are only timid, adore where they dare to love.

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

I can understand the things that afflict mankind, but I often marvel at God those which console. An atom may wound, but God alone can heal.

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.

To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.

Loving souls are like paupers. They live on what is given them.

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

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

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

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.

I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men.

Antiquity is a species of aristocracy with which it is not easy to be on visiting terms.

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

The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about us.

Indulgence is lovely in the sinless; toleration, adorable in the pious and believing heart.

Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling.

Since there must be chimeras, why is not perfection the chimera of all men?

It would seem that by our sorrows only are we called to a knowledge of the Infinite. Are we happy? The limits of life constrain us on all sides.

There are not good things enough in life to indemnify us for the neglect of a single duty.

Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others.

One must be a somebody before they can have a enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force.

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we
we divine it.

God Himself allows certain faults; and often we say, I have deserved to err; I have deserved to be ignorant.

I love victory, but I love not triumph.

America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty.

There are but two future verbs which man may appropriate confidently and without pride: "I shall suffer," and "I shall die.

Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery.

In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.

The law of common sense.

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

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

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

Miracles are God's coups d'etat.

By becoming unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so.

My sole defense against the natural horror which death inspires is to love beyond it.

The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself.

Time is the shower of Danae; each drop is golden.

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.

What is resignation? It is putting God between one's self and one's grief.

If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it.

We are amused through the intellect, but it is the heart that saves us from ennui.

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.

Strength alone knows conflict, weakness is born vanquished.

A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion is old at the end of three months.

He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving has but glanced at the joys of charity.

Indifferent souls never part. Impassioned souls part, and return to one another, because they can do no better.

Suspicion has its dupes, as well as credulity.

Youth should be a savings bank.

Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference.

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

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.

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

Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.

The very might of the human intellect reveals its limits.

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

In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose.

If grief is to be mitigated, it must either wear itself out or be shared.

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

The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.

Might we not say to the confused voices which sometimes arise from the depths of our being: "Ladies, be so kind as to speak only four at a time?"

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.

As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts.

The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril.

To reveal imprudently the spot where we are most sensitive and vulnerable is to invite a blow. The demigod Achilles admitted no one to his confidence.

When any one tells you that he belongs to no party, you may at any rate be sure that he does not belong to yours.

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

There is nothing at all in life, except what we put there.

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

Repentance is accepted remorse.

Years do not make sages; they only make old men.

We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.

We recognize the action of God in great things: we exclude it in small. We forget that the Lord of eternity is also the Lord of the hour.

Piety softens all that courage bears.

There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.

What I value most next to eternity is time.

Let our lives be pure as snowfields, where our steps leave a mark but no stain.

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.

We must labor unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious.

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

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

There is a transcendent power in example.