It is altogether an extraordinary growing, swarming, glittering, pushing, chattering, good-natured, cosmopolitan place, and perhaps in some ways the best imitation of Paris that can be found (with a great originality of its own).

When I am wicked I am in high spirits.

When you forget to eat, you know you're alive.

Make him [the reader] think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications.

And remember this, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved.

I had an excellent repast - the best repast possible - which consisted simply of boiled eggs and bread and butter. It was the quality of these simple ingredients that made the occasion memorable. The eggs were so good that I am ashamed to say how many of them I consumed ....It might seem that an egg which has succeeded in being fresh has done all that can be reasonably expected of it.

She is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a dazzling brilliancy!