Alas, everything that men say to one another is alike; the ideas they exchange are almost always the same, in their conversation. But inside all those isolated machines, what hidden recesses, what secret compartments! It is an entire world that each one carries within him, an unknown world that is born and dies in silence! What solitudes all these human bodies are!

Experience is the name men give to their follies or their sorrows.

Become corrupt, corrupt, and you will cease to suffer!" This has been the cry of all cities to man.

Vanity and dignity are incompatible with each other; vain women are almost sure to be vulnerable.

Is is true that dictators never dream because they can change their smallest fantasies into realities if they want to?

Perfection does not exist; to understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to expect to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness.

Happiness may have but one night, as glory but one day.