Rhyme, that enslaved queen, that supreme charm of our poetry, that creator of our meter. poetry
Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming meet. dreams & the future
To love another person is to see the face of God. God & love
Change your opinions, keep to your principles change your leaves, keep intact your roots. change
The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. happiness, life & love
There are fathers who do not love their children there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson. love
Our life dreams the Utopia. Our death achieves the Ideal. death & dreams
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. time
To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful. truth
Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive. art, freedom & society
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved loved for ourselves, or rather in spite of ourselves. happiness
Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress, memory is the servant. imagination & intelligence
Scepticism, that dry caries of the intelligence. intelligence
Nature has made a pebble and a female. The lapidary makes the diamond, and the lover makes the woman. nature
What is history? An echo of the past in the future a reflex from the future on the past. the future & history
Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved. happiness
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. music
To think is of itself to be useful it is always and in all cases a striving toward God. God
Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers. beauty & greatness
Fashions have done more harm than revolutions. being funny
Many great actions are committed in small struggles. greatness
Because one doesn't like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God. God
Men like me are impossible until the day when they become necessary. men
Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters. men
People do not lack strength they lack will. strength
The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human. men
Life is the flower for which love is the honey. life & love
Nothing else in the world... not all the armies... is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. time
There is nothing like a dream to create the future. the future
A great artist is a great man in a great child. greatness
I love all men who think, even those who think otherwise than myself. men
When God desires to destroy a thing, he entrusts its destruction to the thing itself. Every bad institution of this world ends by suicide. God
Jesus wept Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization. smile
What would be ugly in a garden constitutes beauty in a mountain. beauty & nature
Men become accustomed to poison by degrees. men
Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man. God & hope
To love beauty is to see light. beauty & love
A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. Mother's Day
Forty is the old age of youth fifty the youth of old age. aging
Joy's smile is much closer to tears than laughter. smile
The ideal and the beautiful are identical the ideal corresponds to the idea, and beauty to form hence idea and substance are cognate. beauty
A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil. inspirational
Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime. peace & war
A war between Europeans is a civil war. war
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time as come. time
Wisdom is a sacred communion. wisdom
Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it. God & sympathy
Amnesty is as good for those who give it as for those who receive it. It has the admirable quality of bestowing mercy on both sides. being good
Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. attitudes
I'm religiously opposed to religion. religion
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers? men & war
To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do. Thanksgiving
Smallness in a great man seems smaller by its disproportion with all the rest. greatness
He who opens a school door, closes a prison. education
Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men. happiness & men
To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it. happiness
The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God. God
We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present. time
Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art. In a woman the flesh must be like marble in a statue the marble must be like flesh. art, beauty, God & nature
When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age. aging
Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education. education
Indigestion is charged by God with enforcing morality on the stomach. God
Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time. time
Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great. being good, greatness & history
Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come. time
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. power & time
Toleration is the best religion. best & religion
A library implies an act of faith. faith
As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer. nature
The first symptom of love in a young man is timidity in a girl boldness. love
Love is a portion of the soul itself, and it is of the same nature as the celestial breathing of the atmosphere of paradise. love & nature
A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing. faith
Conscience is God present in man. God