I see that you believe in love such as the poets and romancers have represented... The poets represent love as the sculptors design beauty, as the musicians create melody; that is to say, endowed with an exquisite nervous organization, they gather up with discerning ardor the purest elements of life, the most beautiful lines of matter, and the most harmonious voices of nature.... To try to find in real life such love as this, eternal and absolute, is the same thing as to seek on the public squares such a woman as Venus or to expect nightingales to sing the symphonies of Beethoven.

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

Few persons enjoy real liberty; we are all slaves to ideas or habits.

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.

Partake of love as a temperate man partakes of wine; do not become intoxicated.

A happy memory is perhaps on this earth truer than happiness itself.

With a kiss let us set out for an unknown world.