Those that achieve anything that looks beyond the vision and thinking of their peers provoke jealousy and hatred disguised as the ordinary.

We take a fancy to something: and scarcely have we thoroughly taken a fancy to it when that tyrant in us calls out: "Give me thatin sacrifice"--and we give it.

A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.

One must not let oneself be misled: they say 'Judge not!' but they send to Hell everything that stands in their way.

The will to overcome an emotion, is ultimately only the will of another, or of several other, emotions.

Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.

Another Christian concept, no less crazy, has passed even more deeply into the tissue of modernity: the concept of the 'equality of souls before God.' This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.