For women, history does not exist. Murasaki, Sappho, and Madame Lafayette might be their own contemporaries.
Living is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances.
Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.
The only joy in the world is to begin.
You've got to understand life, understand it when you're young.
Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long.