Chastity more rarely follows fear, or a resolution, or a vow, than it is the mere effect of lack of appetite and, sometimes even, of distaste.

What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.

Drunkenness is never anything but a substitute for happiness.

The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.

The individual never asserts himself more than when he forgets himself.

When you have nothing to say, or to hide, there is no need to be prudent.