Echoes

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship.

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

The first bond of society is the marriage tie; the next, our children; then the whole family of our house.

Friendship and domestic happiness are continually praised; yet how little is there of either in the world, because it requires more cultivation of mind to keep awake affection, even in our own hearts, than the common run of people suppose. Besides, few like to be seen as they really are; and a degree of simplicity, and of undisguised confidence, which, to uninterested observers, would almost border on weakness, is the charm, nay the essence of love or friendship, all the bewitching graces of childhood again appearing.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

He was that child's stay, and she was his prop. Thanks to him, she could walk through life; thanks to her, he could continue in virtue.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love.

Marriage must constantly vanquish a monster that devours everything: the monster of habit.

Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them.

He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.

Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but truth is a greater friend.

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up.

Home is where the heart is.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.