To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck that one encounters only too rarely.

Now literary success can only be won in solitude by persevering labor.

Let nothing dupe you! Such is the horrible maxim that acts as a solvent upon every noble feeling man experiences.

It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.

Religious ecstasy is a madness of thought freed of its bodily bonds, whereas in the ecstasy of love, the forces of twin natures unite, blend and embrace one another.

Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.

Conscience is our unerring judge until we finally stifle it.