Equality may be the law, but no human power can install it.

How can we explain the perpetuity of envy--a vice which yields no return?

The greater a man's talents, the more marked his idiosyncracies. Yet in the provinces originality is considered perilously close to lunacy.

Virtue in women is perhaps a question of temperament.

How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene. 'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come back in comfort. All or nothing, that's my motto.' 'And a very good one,' said Madame Vauquer.

Temperament is the thermometer of character.

Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual.