The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance.

The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.

Madame Aubain's servant Felicite was the envy of the ladies of Pont-l'Eveque for half a century.

Coffee: Induces wit. Good only if it comes through Havre. After a big dinner party it is taken standing up. Take it without sugar - very swank: gives the impression you have lived in the East.

Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling.

And so I will take back up my poor life, so plain and so tranquil, where phrases are adventures and the only flowers I gather aremetaphors.