Order in a house ought to be like the machinery in opera, whose effect produces great pleasure, but whose ends must be hid.
Love is the only possession which we can carry with us beyond the grave.
A pure style in writing results from the rejection of everything superfluous.
Our own cast-off sorrows are not sufficient to constitute sympathy for others.
The more heart, the more sorrow.
The old age of women is bearable only on condition that they do not take up any room, do not make any noise, do not demand any service; on condition that they render all the service that is expected of them, and actually have no existence except for the good of others.
You may be more prodigal of time than of money.
One can impose silence on sentiment, but one can not give it limits.
It is often a sign of wit not to show it, and not to see that others want it.
For the honest people, relations increase with the years. For the vicious, inconveniences increase. Inconstancy is the defect of vice; the influence of habit is one of the qualities of virtue.
In looking around me seeking for miserable resources against the heaviness of time, I open a book and I say to myself, as the cat to the fox: I have only one good turn, but I need no other.
The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms. Everything is more beautiful when they have passed.
Fiction is a potent agent for good – in the hands of the good.
Recognized probity is the surest of all oaths.
Obligation is the bitterest thraldom.
Want of perseverance is the great fault of women in everything – morals, attention to health, friendship, and so on. It cannot be too often repeated that women never reach the end of anything through want of perseverance.
Reason ought not, like vanity, to adorn herself with ancient parchments, and the display of a genealogical tree; more dignified in her proceedings, and proud of her immortal nature, she ought to derive everything from herself.
A woman must be truly refined to incite chivalry in the heart of a man.
That woman is happiest whose life is passed in the shadow of a manly, loving heart.
Remarkable places are like the summits of rocks; eagles and reptiles only can get there.
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.