Life is simply what out feelings do to us.

God is the poet; men are but the actors. The great dramas of earth were written in heaven.

A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.

It is very difficult to pass from pleasure to work. Accordingly more poems have been swallowed up by sorrow than ever happiness caused to blaze forth in unparalleled radiance.

The secret of the nobility and beauty of great ladies lies in the art with which they can shed their veils. In such situations, they become like ancient statues. If they kept the merest scarf on, they would be lewd. Your bourgeois woman will always try to cover her nakedness.

Necessity is the spur of genius.

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