Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness.

Housekeeping in common is for women the acid test.

We don't love a woman for what she says, we like what she says because we love her.

Happiness is never there to stay [...] Happiness is merely a respite offered by inquietude.

Two human beings anchored to one another are like two ships shaken by waves; their carcases collide with one another and creak.

Learning is nothing without cultivated manners, but when the two are combined in a woman, you have one of the most exquisite products of civilization.

A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.