Conscience is a cudgel which all men pick up in order to thwack their neighbors instead of applying it to their own shoulders.

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

Man can start with aversion and end with love, but if he begins with love and comes round to aversion he will never get back to love.

The most virtuous women have within them something that is never chaste.

By and large, women have a faith and a morality peculiar to themselves; they believe in the reality of everything that serves their interest and their passions.

If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.

Rare is the man who suffers no remorse as he passes from the state of confidant to that of rival.