"As for you Maximilien, here is the secret of my conduct toward you: there is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another.  Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.  It is necessary to have wished for death, Maximilien, in order to know how good it is to live.
     Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day God deigns to reveal the future to man, the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."