Anything we destroy in ourselves we destroy in others. Our falls lower others and throw them down; we owe it to our fellows to keep upright, in order that they too may keep their feet.

I would rather believe that God did not exist than believe that he was indifferent.

The smoke of glory is not worth the smoke of a pipe.

If 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.

The brain is a tool that gets rusty without constant, albeit moderate, exercise.

Whoever has loved once, knows all that life contains of sorrow and of joy.

... love is too delicate a flower to rise again when one has trampled it under foot.