“Pure, perfect sorrow is as impossible as pure and perfect joy.”

“Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.”

“Pierre was one of those people who are strong only when they feel themselves perfectly pure.”

“He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree.”

“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”

“She did not want to talk of her sorrow, but with that sorrow in her heart she could not talk of outside matters.”

“In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ's compassion for us no sorrow is trifling.”