A friend loves you for your intelligence, a mistress for your charm, but your family's love is unreasoning; you were born into it and are of its flesh and blood. Nevertheless it can irritate you more than any group of people in the world.

Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.

Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.

Almost all great writers have as their motif, more or less disguised, the passage from childhood to maturity, the clash between the thrill of expectation and the disillusioning knowledge of truth. 'Lost Illusion' is the undisclosed title of every novel.

If you value a man's regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper - and despise it.

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.