“To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.”

Source: War and peace (2005), p. 4

The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)

Source: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
Context: Man is naturally more disposed to beneficent than selfish actions. This we learn even from the history of savages. The domestic virtues have something in them so inviting and genial, and the public virtues of the citizen something so grand and inspiring, that even he who is barely uncorrupted, is seldom able to resist their charm.

The Sayings of the Wise (1555)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 38.

As quoted in Learned Hand : The Man and the Judge (1994) by Gerald Gunther.
Extra-judicial writings

Source: The Life of Pasteur (1902), p. 163
Context: I confess frankly, however, that I am not competent on the question of our philosophical schools. Of M. Comte I have only read a few absurd passages; of M. Littré I only know the beautiful pages you were inspired to write by his rare knowledge and some of his domestic virtues. My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind, and I give myself up, for instance, to those feelings about eternity which come naturally at the bedside of a cherished child drawing its last breath. At those supreme moments, there is something in the depths of our souls which tells us that the world may be more than a mere combination of phenomena proper to a mechanical equilibrium brought out of the chaos of the elements simply through the gradual action of the forces of matter.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

"Absence" (1857), st. 3