How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden changes in character, about which so much has been said, are instinctive calculations for the furtherance of our own pleasures. Seeing himself now in his fine clothes, his new gloves and shoes, Eugène de Rastignac forgot his noble resolve. Youth, when it swerves toward wrong, dares not look in the mirror of conscience; maturity has already seen itself there. That is the whole difference between the two phases of life.

Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.

We do not wish success yet we obtain it. Always we find what we are not looking for. These words are too true not to become a proverb some day.

Modern reformers offer nebulous theories or write philanthropic novels. But your thief acts! He is as clear as a fact and as logical as a punch on the nose! And what a style he has!

Children, dear and loving children, can alone console a woman for the loss of her beauty.

Economized love is never real love.