Anne Sophie Swetchine (née Sofia Petrovna Soymonova; November 22, 1782 – 1857), known as Madame Swetchine, was a Russian mystic, born in Moscow, and famous for her salon in Paris.
If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it.
What is resignation? It is putting God between one's self and one's grief.
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.
Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery.
America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty.
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?"
Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.
Truth only is prolific. Error, sterile in itself, produces only by means of the portion of truth which it contains. It may have offspring, but the life which it gives, like that of the hybrid races, cannot be transmitted.
It is a little stream, which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course.
I love victory, but I love not triumph.
We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.
Love sometimes elevates, creates new qualities, suspends the working of evil inclinations; but only for a day. Love, then, is an Oriental despot, whose glance lifts a slave from the dust, and then consigns him to it again.
The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself.
Old age is the night of life, as night is the old age of the day. Still, night is full of magnificence; and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day.
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.
We must labor unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious.
Feeling loves a subdued light.
I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men.
Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.
The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack