It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

Oh, Creator! Can monsters exist in the sight of him who alone knows how they were invented, how they invented themselves, and how they might not have invented themselves?

Wine transforms moles into eagles.

The son will run away from the family not at eighteen but at twelve, emancipated by his gluttonous precocity; he will fly not to seek heroic adventures, not to deliver a beautiful prisoner from a tower, not to immortalize a garret with sublime thoughts, but to found a business, to enrich himself and to compete with his infamous papa.

The man who says his evening prayer is a captain posting his sentinels. He can sleep.

Cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household.