La nature est éternellement jeune, belle et généreuse. Elle verse la poésie et la beauté à tous les êtres, à toutes les plantes, qu'on laisse s'y dév… - George Sand

In the stormy days of our youth, we imagine that solitude is a sure refuge from the assaults of life, a certain balm for the wounds of battle. This is a serious mistake, and experience teaches us that, if we cannot live in peace with our fellow-men, neither romantic raptures nor aesthetic enjoyment will ever fill the abyss gaping at the bottom of our hearts.

Bernard, would you like me to tell you why they thought women false?”

“Yes, tell me.”

“Because they were brutes and tyrants to creatures weaker than themselves. Whenever one makes one’s self feared one runs the risk of being deceived. In your childhood, when John used to beat you, did you never try to escape his brutal punishment by disguising your little faults?”

“I did; that was my only resource.”

“You can understand, then, that deception is, if not the right, at least the resource of the oppressed.

Desde que empecé a meter la nariz en la verdadera naturaleza, he encontrado en ella un orden, una continuidad, una placidez de revoluciones que le faltan al hombre, pero que el hombre puede hasta cierto punto hacer suyas, cuando no está directamente atado a las dificultades de la vida que le es propia. Cuando esas dificultades reaparecen, hace bien en esforzarse por protegerse de ellas, pero si ha bebido en la copa de lo verdaderamente eterno, no se apasiona demasiado por o contra lo efímero y relativo