When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army

It is easier for a woman to be a good wife than a good mother. A widow has two duties with contrary obligations: she is a mother and she must exercise paternal authority. Few woman are strong enough to understand and to play this role.

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

A monster which devours everything - that is familiarity.

A woman filled with faith in the one she loves is the creation of a novelist's imagination.

There is neither vice nor virtue, there are only circumstances.

Hatred like love feeds on the merest trifles. Everything adds to it. Just as the being we love can do no wrong, so the one we hate can do no right.