Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both. The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret. A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt. Common sense is calculation applied to life. Common sense is the measure of the possible. Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for others is genius. Every life is a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent influence. Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death. There is no real piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage. It is not what he had, or even what he does, which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is. Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle. | 
