Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Oh! if people were but acquainted with piety, they would not fear it so much, or give it so unattractive a character 'tis the balm of life, and perhaps in the world it is believed to consist of bitterness, harshness, uncouthness but, take my word for it, nothing is more gentle, more yielding, more loving than a pious soul.

The effect of every burden laid down is to leave us relieved and when the soul has laid down that of its faults at the feet of God, it feels as though it had wings.

A little time separates us from those who depart - a time of tears, a time of sadness and solitude but, that over, we go to rejoin them and to enjoy with them the society of the blessed. Oh, how sweetly the heart rests in this immortal hope!

My God, how badly one calculates in this world! ... Let us leave off calculating on anything but death -- it is the only certainty.

How long time is when one is sad! Is it three years or three days since you went away?

We are only here below as in an inn on a journey. Let us, then have the feelings of travelers. We should think a man very strange who attached himself much to his inn. The wise Christian will not do this.

in God alone is love without tears, and of eternal duration.

Certainly, friends are sufficiently rare not to be neglected they are life's best comforters.

One has so much time for thought in the country! However occupied one may be, 'tis with nothing that engrosses the mind, which works away on its own account like a mill-wheel.