George Sand

"Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness. "

"It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides. "

"Life in common among people who love each other is the ideal of happiness. "

"There is only one happiness in life, to love and to be loved. "

"Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning. I think that is the only way to keep adding to one's talent, to one's affections, and one's inner happiness. "

"Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure. "