Our greatest fears lie in anticipation.

What saves the virtue of many a woman is that protecting god, the impossible.

Fools gain greater advantages through their weakness than intelligent men through their strength. We watch a great man struggling against fate and we do not lift a finger to help him. But we patronize a grocer who is headed for bankruptcy.

The innocence of virgins is like milk which turns when exposed to a clap of thunder, to a tart smell, to a hot day, to the merest nothing.

What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure.

Neither the passions not justice nor politics nor the great social forces ever consider the victims they strike.