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

The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.

How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene. 'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come back in comfort. All or nothing, that's my motto.' 'And a very good one,' said Madame Vauquer.

Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most audacious of enterprises; the battle is not slow to start, and victory, that is to say freedom, goes to the cleverest.

He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men.

Life cannot go on without much forgetting.

Man can start with aversion and end with love, but if he begins with love and comes round to aversion he will never get back to love.