A fiancé is neither this nor that: he's left one shore, but not yet reached the other.
The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
The aim of fiction is absolute and honest truth.
Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.
It is always "Youth, youth," when there is nothing else to be said.
If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.