Isn't it really quite extraordinary to see that, since man took his first step, no one has asked himself why he walks, how he walks, if he has ever walked, if he could walk better, what he achieves in walking .. questions that are tied to all the philosophical, psychological, and political systems which preoccupy the world.

True lovers know how trifling a thing is money yet how difficult to blend with love!

Any man, however blase or depraved, finds his love kindled anew when he sees himself threatened by a rival.

Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy.

There is nothing original; all is reflected light.

To stroll is a science, it is the gastronomy of the eye. To walk is to vegetate, to stroll is to live.... To stroll is to enjoy, it is to assume a mind-set, it is to admire the sublime pictures of unhappiness, of love, of joy, of graceful or grotesque portraits; it is to plunge one's vision to the depths of a thousand existences: young, it is to desire everything; old, it is to live the life of the young, to marry their passions.

Conventions are often more cruel than the law.