By dint of making sacrifices, a man grows interested in the person who exacts them. Great ladies, like courtesans, know this truth by instinct.

My writing table has seen all my wretchedness, knows all my plans, has overheard all my thoughts.

Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.

Old maids, having never bent their temper or their lives to other lives and other tempers, as woman's destiny requires, have for the most part a mania for making everything about them bend to them.

Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual. Misfortune is a stepping stone for a genius, a piscina for a Christian, a treasure for a man of parts, and an abyss for a weakling.

Vivacity is the health of the spirit.

Memories beautify life, but the capacity to forget makes it bearable.