You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.

The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dice box in hand, shaking the dice.

They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself; and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish.

What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.

Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.