Have you never been moved by poor men's fidelity, the image of you they form in their simple minds? Why should you always talk of their envy, without understanding that what they ask of you is not so much your worldly goods, as something very hard to define, which they themselves can put no name to; yet at times it consoles their loneliness; a dream of splendor, of magnificence, a tawdry dream, a poor man's dream -and yet God blesses it!

Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

God! how is it that we fail to recognize that the mask of pleasure, stripped of all hypocrisy, is that of anguish?

To be able to share in another's joy, that is the secret of happiness.

Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

Hell, madame, is to love no longer.

Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards.