For young people always begin by loving exaggeration, that infirmity of noble minds.

Sensuality is the death of the soul.

Women, when they have made a sheep of a man, always tell him that he is a lion with a will of iron.

Like most young people, these two attributed to the world their own intelligence and virtues. Youth who knows no failure has no mercy on the faults of other people; but it has also a sublime faith in them.

Beauty is the greatest of human powers. Any power without counterbalance or control becomes autocratic and leads to abuse and to folly. Despotism in a government is insanity; in woman, fantasy.

To have fame follow us is well, but it is not a desirable avant-courier.

It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.