Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Sophie Swetchine (Russian Mystic, Writer)

Anne Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857,) née Soymonoff or Soymanova, was a Russian mystic, writer, and salonnière.

Born in Moscow, Swetchine was the daughter of one of the Empress Catherine the Great’s closest advisors. Swetchine was educated well, spoke many European languages, and became the lady-in-waiting to Empress Maria Fedorovna.

In 1799, Swetchine married General Nicholas Sergeyevich Swetchine, but the couple could not have children. She turned to religion for comfort, came under the influence of the Savoyard philosopher Joseph de Maistre, and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1815. Settling in Paris, Swetchine fostered her religious leanings by maintaining a private chapel. She opened a salon in Paris that became famous for not only its spiritual atmosphere but also its courtesy and intellect.

Swetchine’s Life and Works (2 vols., 1860,) celebrated for its mysticism, was published posthumously by French politician and author Frédéric Alfred Pierre, comte de Falloux. They were followed by her Letters (2 vols., 1861.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Sophie Swetchine

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
Sophie Swetchine

There is a transcendent power in example. We reform others unconsciously, when we walk uprightly.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Correction, Example, Reform

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

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Vanity

Each moment, as it passes, is the meeting place of two eternities.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Time

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Expectations, Expectation

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
Topics: Study

To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Love

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

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

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

We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Judgment

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
Topics: Sanity

There are two ways of attaining an important end-force and perseverance. Force falls to the lot only of the privileged few, but austere and sustained perseverance can be practised by the most insignificant.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Perseverance

When two truths seem directly opposed to each other, we must not question either, but remember there is a third—God—who reserves to himself the right to harmonize them.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Truth

Resignation is putting God between ourselves and our troubles.
Sophie Swetchine

There is, by God’s grace, an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Procrastination

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Happiness

Those who make us happy are always thankful to us for being so; their gratitude is the reward of their benefits.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Gratitude

What I most value next to eternity, is time.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Time

The heart has always the pardoning power.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Forgiveness, Heart

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

By becoming more unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Happiness, Difficulties, Unhappiness, Adversity

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Strength

In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Illusion

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Friends and Friendship

Prayer, says St. Jerome, “is a groan.” Ah! our groans are prayers as well. The very cry of distress is an involuntary appeal to that invisible Power whose aid the soul invokes.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Prayer

He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving, has but glanced at the joys of charity.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Charity

Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Kindness, Service, Compassion

In the opinion of the world marriage ends all, as it does in a comedy.—The truth is precisely the reverse; it begins all.
Sophie Swetchine
Topics: Marriage

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