Few men are raised in our estimation by being too closely examined.

Grief ennobles the commonest people because it has its own essential grandeur. To shine with the luster of grief, a person need only be sincere.

A wife is property that one acquires by contract, she is transferable, because possession of her requires title; in fact, woman is, so to speak, only man's appendage; consequently, slice, cut, clip her, you have all rights to her.

Towns find it as hard as houses of business to rise again from ruin.

At fifteen, neither beauty nor talent exist: a woman is all promise.

Man's condition is horrible because, no matter what form his happiness may take, it arises from some species of ignorance.

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