Love is perhaps no more than gratitude for pleasure.

No society is complete without some victim, a creature to pity, to jeer at, to scorn or to protect.

But woman brings disorder into society through passion.

Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gestures or quick movements inspire involuntary disrespect.

But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

The best painters, as they progress in reputation and towards perfection, are found to dispense more and more with the technique of the art, for simpler methods. Simplicity never fails to charm.