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.

The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret source of human genius.

We flew back home like swallows. 'Is it happiness that makes us so light?' Agathe asked.

The world will avenge itself upon all happiness in which it has no share.

Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying in stores of knowledge and energy, so that they shall not sink under the weight of responsible posts that recede from them, schemers come and go who are wealthy in words and destitute of ideas, astonish the ignorant, and creep into the confidence of those who have a little knowledge.

It is as absurd to say that a man can't love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.

A letter is a soul, so faithful an echo of the speaking voice that to the sensitive it is among the richest treasures of love.