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

Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures the angel; science is still seeking; love has found.

Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.

For young people always begin by loving exaggeration, that infirmity of noble minds.

As a rule, only the poor are generous. Rich people can always find excellent reasons for not handing over twenty thousand francs to a relative.

A beautiful book is a victory won in all the battlefields of human thought.

Sects differ more in name than tenets.