Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

"Love for old men is sun on the snow: it dazzles more than it warms them."

"A child becomes for his parents, according to the education he receives, a blessing or a chastisement."

"Promises retain men better than services. For them, hope is a chain, and gratitude a thread."

"Let us respect white hair — especially our own."

"Happiness is the shadow of man: remembrance of it follows him; hope of it precedes him."

"We know the value of a fortune when we have gained it, and that of a friend when we have lost it."

"To protect one's self against the storms of passion, marriage with a good woman is a harbour in the tempest; but with a bad woman, it proves a tempest in the harbour."

"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."

"The flavour of detached thoughts depends upon the conciseness of their expression: for thoughts are grains of sugar, or of salt, that must be melted in a drop of water."

"For one Orpheus who went to Hell to seek his wife, how many widowers who would not even go to Paradise to find theirs!"

"What we gain by experience is not worth what we lose in illusion."

"We salute more willingly an acquaintance in a carriage than a friend on foot."

"We like to give in the sunlight, and to receive in the dark."

"Beauty and ugliness disappear equally under the wrinkles of age: one is lost in them, the other hidden."

"Ein Übel gibt es, von dem auf die Dauer die Ärzte uns immer heilen: unsere Leichtgläubigkeit."

"Die Religion ist das Krankenhaus der Seele, welche die Welt verwundet hat."

"Die öffentliche Meinung ist eine Buhlerin: Man sucht ihr zu gefallen, ohne sie zu achten."

"Die Ehe ist ein Hafen im Sturm, öfter aber ein Sturm im Hafen."

"Der Tod einer Mutter ist der erste Kummer, den man ohne sie beweint."

"Atheismus ist Selbstmord der Seele."