A husband can commit no greater blunder than to discuss his wife, if she is virtuous, with his mistress; unless it be to mention his mistress, if she is beautiful, to his wife.

The mind, too, has its regimen. It needs gymnastics, just like the body does.

Virtue in women is perhaps a question of temperament.

The secret of the nobility and beauty of great ladies lies in the art with which they can shed their veils. In such situations, they become like ancient statues. If they kept the merest scarf on, they would be lewd. Your bourgeois woman will always try to cover her nakedness.

Love is not only a feeling, it is also an art. A simple word, a sensitive precaution, a mere nothing reveal to a woman the sublime artist who can touch her heart without withering it.

Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy.

Our most natural feelings are those we are loath to confess, and fatuity is among them.