When we hear complaints of ...

When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.
When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.

Quotes from the same author

Just as much as we see in others, we have in ourselves.
A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
Men are in numberless instances qualified for certain things, for no other reason than because they are qualified for nothing else.
As is our confidence, so is our capacity.