What, in fact, is social organization but a series of habits, settled in accordance with the dispositions of our nature?
I distrust both the intellect and the morality of those people to whom disorder is of no consequence--who can live at ease in an Augean stable.
What surrounds us, reflects more or less that which is within us.

The mind is like one of those dark lanterns which, in spite of everything, still throw some light around.

If our tastes did not reveal our character, they would be no longer tastes, but instincts.
While I was arranging everything in my attic, my eyes rested on the little almanac hanging over my chimney-piece.

I looked for the day of the month, and I saw these words written in large letters: "FETE DIEU!" It is to-day! In this great city, where there are no longer any public religious solemnities, there is nothing to remind us of it; but it is, in truth, the period so happily chosen by the primitive church.

"The day kept in honor of the Creator," says Chateaubriand, "happens at a time when the heaven and the earth declare His power, when the woods and fields are full of new life, and all are united by the happiest ties; there is not a single widowed plant in the fields." What recollections these words have just awakened! I left off what I was about, I leaned my elbows on the windowsill, and, with my head between my two hands, I went back in thought to the little town where the first days of my childhood were passed.
The 'Fete Dieu' was then one of the great events of my life! It was necessary to be diligent and obedient a long time beforehand, to deserve to share in it.