110+ Sophie Swetchine Quotes On Friendship, Death And Spiritual

Sophie Swetchine was a Russian author who wrote during the 19th century. She was part of the Russian literary scene and wrote about a variety of topics including religion, philosophy, and literature. Swetchine was also known for her spiritual writings, which were highly influential in the Russian Orthodox Church. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Sophie Swetchine on love, life, friendship.

Top 10 Sophie Swetchine Quotes

1. The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack
2. Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.
3. There is a transcendent power in example.
4. Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.
5. The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.
6. There is, by God's grace, an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
7. The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master.
8. Since there must be chimeras, why is not perfection the chimera of all men?
9. He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving has but glanced at the joys of charity.
10. In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose.

Sophie Swetchine Short Quotes

• A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend.
• Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.
• By becoming unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so.
• Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others.
• There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.
• We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.
• To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.
• The injustice of men subserves the justice of God, and often His mercy.
• Where there is a question of economy, I prefer privation.
• In a healthy state of the organism all wounds have a tendency to heal.

Sophie Swetchine Quotes About Love

Loving souls are like paupers. They live on what is given them. — Sophie Swetchine

To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others. — Sophie Swetchine

I love victory, but I love not triumph. — Sophie Swetchine

Feeling loves a subdued light. — Sophie Swetchine

The beings who appear cold, but are only timid, adore where they dare to love. — Sophie Swetchine

He who has ceased to enjoy his friend's superiority has ceased to love him. — Sophie Swetchine

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. — Sophie Swetchine

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two. — Sophie Swetchine

My sole defense against the natural horror which death inspires is to love beyond it. — Sophie Swetchine

If we look closely at this earth, where God seems so utterly forgotten, we shall find that it is He, after all, who commands the most fidelity and the most love. — Sophie Swetchine

Sophie Swetchine Quotes About Life

There are not good things enough in life to indemnify us for the neglect of a single duty. — Sophie Swetchine

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. — Sophie Swetchine

When fresh sorrows have caused us to take some steps in the right way, we may not complain. We have invested in a life annuity, but the income remains. — Sophie Swetchine

There is nothing steadfast in life but our memories. We are sure of keeping intact only that which we have lost. — Sophie Swetchine

America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty. — Sophie Swetchine

In youth, grief comes with a rush and overflow, but it dries up, too, like the torrent. In the winter of life it remains a miserable pool, resisting all evaporation. — Sophie Swetchine

All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness; while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points. — Sophie Swetchine

Faith, amid the disorders of a sinful life, is like the lamp burning in an ancient tomb. — Sophie Swetchine

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. — Sophie Swetchine

As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts. — Sophie Swetchine

Sophie Swetchine Quotes About Force

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time. — Sophie Swetchine

One must be a somebody before they can have an enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. — Sophie Swetchine

In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend. — Sophie Swetchine

Sophie Swetchine Famous Quotes And Sayings

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Under the conditions of our climate, shadow gives light its worth; sternness enhances mildness; solemnity, splendor. Varying proportions of size support and subserve one another. — Sophie Swetchine

Let us not fail to scatter along our pathway the seeds of kindness and sympathy. Some of them will doubtless perish; but if one only lives, it will perfume our steps and rejoice our eyes. — Sophie Swetchine

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. — Sophie Swetchine

The best of lessons, for a good many people, would be to listen at a keyhole. It is a pity for such that the practice is dishonorable. — Sophie Swetchine

Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them. — Sophie Swetchine

A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion is old at the end of three months. — Sophie Swetchine

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?" — Sophie Swetchine

Death is the justification of all the ways of the Christian, the last end of all his sacrifices, the touch of the Great Master which completes the picture. — Sophie Swetchine

Friendship is like those ancient altars where the unhappy, and even the guilty, found a sure asylum. — Sophie Swetchine

Indulgence is lovely in the sinless; toleration, adorable in the pious and believing heart. — Sophie Swetchine

In retirement, the passage of time seems accelerated. Nothing warns us of its flight. It is a wave which never murmurs, because there is no obstacle to its flow. — Sophie Swetchine

Years do not make sages; they only make old men. — Sophie Swetchine

What I value most next to eternity is time. — Sophie Swetchine

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together. — Sophie Swetchine

We are amused through the intellect, but it is the heart that saves us from ennui. — Sophie Swetchine

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing. — Sophie Swetchine

Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things. — Sophie Swetchine

Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference. — Sophie Swetchine

People read every thing nowadays, except books. — Sophie Swetchine

The law of common sense. — Sophie Swetchine

We must labor unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious. — Sophie Swetchine

Life grows darker as we go on, till only one pure light is left shining on it; and that is faith. Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revelations. — Sophie Swetchine

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we--we divine it. — Sophie Swetchine

The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about us. — Sophie Swetchine

It is a little stream, which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course. — Sophie Swetchine

The inventory of my faith for this lower world is soon made out. I believe in Him who made it. — Sophie Swetchine

When any one tells you that he belongs to no party, you may at any rate be sure that he does not belong to yours. — Sophie Swetchine

I study much, and the more I study, the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them. — Sophie Swetchine

Resignation is, to some extent, spoiled for me by the fact that it is so entirely conformable to the laws of common-sense. I should like just a little more of the supernatural in the practice of my favorite virtue. — Sophie Swetchine

We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past. — Sophie Swetchine

A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers--all ready to disown it. — Sophie Swetchine

God Himself allows certain faults; and often we say, "I have deserved to err; I have deserved to be ignorant. — Sophie Swetchine

We are rich only through what we give. — Sophie Swetchine

Liberty must be a mighty thing; for by it God punishes and rewards nations. — Sophie Swetchine

Impassioned characters never attain their mark till they have overshot it. — Sophie Swetchine

Suspicion has its dupes, as well as credulity. — Sophie Swetchine

Piety softens all that courage bears. — Sophie Swetchine

We recognize the action of God in great things: we exclude it in small. We forget that the Lord of eternity is also the Lord of the hour. — Sophie Swetchine

The very might of the human intellect reveals its limits. — Sophie Swetchine

Antiquity is a species of aristocracy with which it is not easy to be on visiting terms. — Sophie Swetchine

The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril. — Sophie Swetchine

The heart has always the pardoning power. — Sophie Swetchine

Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery. — Sophie Swetchine

God has prohibited despair. — Sophie Swetchine

Poor humanity!--so dependent, so insignificant, and yet so great. — Sophie Swetchine

Repentance is accepted remorse. — Sophie Swetchine

I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men. — Sophie Swetchine

Indifferent souls never part. Impassioned souls part, and return to one another, because they can do no better. — Sophie Swetchine

What is resignation? It is putting God between one's self and one's grief. — Sophie Swetchine

Miracles are God's coups d'etat. — Sophie Swetchine

There are minds constructed like the eyes of certain insects, which discern, with admirable distinctness, the most delicate lineaments and finest veins of the leaf which bears them, but are totally unable to take in the ensemble of the plant or shrub. When error has effected an entrance into such minds, it remains there impregnable, because no general view assists them in throwing off the chance impression of the moment. — Sophie Swetchine

The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it. — Sophie Swetchine

If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it. — Sophie Swetchine

Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages; they have learned to understand and be understood by all. — Sophie Swetchine

Let us shun everything, which might tend to efface the primitive lineaments of our individuality. Let us reflect that each one of us is a thought of God. — Sophie Swetchine

Let our lives be pure as snowfields, where our steps leave a mark but no stain. — Sophie Swetchine

There is nothing at all in life, except what we put there. — Sophie Swetchine

Pride dries the tears of anger and vexation; humility, those of grief. The one is indignant that we should suffer; the other calms us by the reminder that we deserve nothing else. — Sophie Swetchine

Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling. — Sophie Swetchine

When we see the shameful fortunes amassed in all quarters of the globe, are we not impelled to exclaim that Judas' thirty pieces of silver have fructified across the centuries? — Sophie Swetchine

Virtue is the daughter of Religion; Repentance, her adopted child,--a poor orphan who, without the asylum which she offers, would not know where to hide her sole treasure, her tears! — Sophie Swetchine

Prayer has a right to the word "ineffable." It is an hour of outpourings which words cannot express,--of that interior speech which we do not articulate, even when we employ it. — Sophie Swetchine

I can understand the things that afflict mankind, but I often marvel at God those which console. An atom may wound, but God alone can heal. — Sophie Swetchine

To reveal imprudently the spot where we are most sensitive and vulnerable is to invite a blow. The demigod Achilles admitted no one to his confidence. — Sophie Swetchine

The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume. — Sophie Swetchine

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. — Sophie Swetchine

The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself. — Sophie Swetchine

Life Lessons by Sophie Swetchine

1. Sophie Swetchine taught that life is short and should be lived with purpose, so we should strive to make the most of every moment and live with intention.
2. She also believed in the power of self-reflection and self-improvement, advocating that we should take the time to reflect on our actions and seek to become better people.
3. Finally, Swetchine encouraged us to be kind and compassionate to others, to always strive to do good and to be generous with our time and resources.