In Paris every man must have had a love affair. What woman wants something that no other woman ever wanted.

Ah! how much a mother learns from her child! The constant protection of a helpless being forces us to so strict an alliance with virtue, that a woman never shows to full advantage except as a mother. Then alone can her character expand in the fulfillment of all life's duties and the enjoyment of all its pleasures.

Forgetting is the great secret of strong and creative lives.

For pain is perhaps but a violent pleasure? Who could determine the point where pleasure becomes pain, where pain is still a pleasure? Is not the utmost brightness of the ideal world soothing to us, while the lightest shadows of the physical world annoy?

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Women are happy to possess a man whom all women covet.

There are as many mediocrities exalted through pity as masters decried through envy.