Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.
George Sandliving for oneself is a bad thing. The keenest intellectual pleasure comes from being able to return to the self after being absent from it for a spell. But living all the time inside the self, that most tyrannical, demanding and capricious of companions - no, one shouldn't do it.
George SandThese tears do me good, they have watered the parched place; perhaps my heart will grow again there!
George SandIf they are ignorant, they are despised, if learned, mocked. In love they are reduced to the status of courtesans. As wives they are treated more as servants than as companions. Men do not love them: they make use of them, they exploit them, and expect, in that way, to make them subject to the law of fidelity.
George Sand