Analogies are figures intended to serve as fatal weapons if they succeed, and as innocent toys if they fail.

American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.

A friend in power is a friend lost.

If one shed tears, they must be shed on one's pillow.

History is only a value of relation.

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

The sensation of seeing extremely fine women, with superb forms, perfectly unconscious of undress, and yet evidently aware of their beauty and dignity, is worth a week's seasickness to experience... [to me] the effect [of a Siva dance] was that of a dozen Rembrandts intensified into the most glowing beauty of life and motion.