The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led.

If you have not done things worthy of being written about, at least write things worthy of being read.

I am bound to add that the excess in too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death.

Whether happy or unhappy, life is the only treasure man possesses.

If I had married a woman intelligent enough to guide me, to rule me without my feeling that I was ruled, I should have taken good care of my money, I should have had children, and I should not be, as now I am, alone in the world and possessing nothing.

After all, a beautiful woman without a mind of her own leaves her lover with no resource after he had physically enjoyed her charms.

The same principle that forbids me to lie does not allow me to tell the truth.