Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.

Sickness sensitizes man for observation, like a photographic plate.

There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals.

Genius is the talent of a person who is dead.

I have always derived indescribable pleasure from leading a decent woman to the edge of sin and leaving her there to live between the temptation and the fear of that sin.