Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.
The thing that must be preserved in all situations whatever is the reputation of one's character.
How true it is that, sooner or later, the' most rebellious must bow beneath the yoke of misfortune!
Why shouldn't man be as angry about not having always been alive as about having to stop being alive?
Mystery such as is given of God is beyond the power of human penetration, yet not in opposition to it.
Wit lies in the likeness of things that are different, and in the difference of things that are alike.
You do not reach the sublime by degrees; the distance between it and the merely beautiful is infinite.
a perfect piece of architecture kindles that aimless reverie, which bears the soul we know not whither.
O Earth! All bathed with blood and tears, yet never, Hast thou ceased putting forth thy fruit and flowers.
Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?
Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike.
The life of famous men was more glorious in antiquity; the life of obscure men is happier with the moderns.
A voyage without companionship, that is to say without conversation, is one of the saddest pleasures of life.
When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.
The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies God in us.
[On Napoleon:] One has the impression of an imperious wind blowing about one's ears when one is near that man.
The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies 'God in us.'
Anyone who can see as far as tomorrow in politics arouses the wrath of people who can see no farther than today.
The people are as severe toward the clergy as toward women; they want to see absolute devotion to duty from both.
When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.
Happy the land where the writers are sad, the merchants satisfied, the rich melancholic, and the populace content.
There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth, those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it.
[On Italian:] One may almost call it a language that talks of itself, and always seems more witty than its speakers.
Men have made of fortune an all-powerful goddess, in order that she may be made responsible for all their blunder's.
Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.
Love, supreme power of the heart, mysterious enthusiasm that encloses in itself all poetry, all heroism, all religion!
Enthusiasm gives life to what is invisible; and interest to what has no immediate action on our comfort in this world.
What matters in a character is not whether one holds this or that opinion: what matters is how proudly one upholds it.
In women's destiny everything goes downhill except for thought, whose immortal nature it is to keep constantly rising.
The sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.
Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.
Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.
I do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.
Beauty is one in the universe, and, whatever form it assumes, it always arouses a religious feeling in the hearts of mankind.
There is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.
Life resembles Gobelin tapestry; you do not see the canvass on the right side; but when you turn it, the threads are visible.
Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks.
The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
Frivolity, under whatever form it appears, deprives attention of its power, thought of its originality, and sentiment of its depth.
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.
To pray together, in whatever tongue or ritual, is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that man can contract in this life.
That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.
Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. - The shores of existence are strewn with them.
... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.
Goethe has made a remark upon the perfectability of the human mind, which is full of sagacity: It is always advancing, but in a spiral line.
It seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.
However old a conjugal union, it still garners some sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom.
New doctrines ever displease the old. They like to fancy that the world has been losing wisdom, instead of gaining it, since they were young.
[To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.