That child whose mother has never smiled upon him is worthy neither of the table of the gods nor the couch of the goddesses.

The more you say, the less they remember.

Change is the essence of life.

Good angels are fallible ... they sin every day and fall from Heaven like flies.

All the good writers of confessions, from Augustine onwards, are men who are still a little in love with their sins.

God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by rapine.

What men call civilization is the condition of present customs; what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.