Constancy will always be the genius of love, the indication of that strength which constitutes the poet. A man should possess all women in his wife, like those squalid poetasters of the seventeenth century who made fair Irises and dazzling Chloes of their lowly Manons.

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

In all lands, sailors form a race apart. They profess a congenital contempt for landlubbers. As for the tradesman, he understands nothing of sailors nor cares a fig about them. He is content to rob them if he can.

Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.

The man who enters his wife's dressing room is either a philosopher or a fool.

In intimate family life, there comes a moment when children, willingly or no, become the judges of their parents.

Once she has committed sin, there is nothing left for the Protestant woman, whereas the Catholic Church, hope of forgiveness makes a woman sublime.