The mind has no sex.

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life.

The world will know and understand me someday. But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter. I shall have opened the way for other women.

Discouragement seizes us only when we can no longer count on chance.

I loved [fairy stories] so, and my mother weighed down by grief had given up telling me them. At Nohant I found Mmes. d'Ardony's and Perrault's tales in old editions which became my chief joy for five or six years ... I've never read them since, but I could tell each tale straight through, and I don't think anything in all one's intellecutal life can be compared to these delights of imagination.

Fame and admiration weigh not a feather in the scale against friendship and love, for the heart languishes all the same.

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