However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?

Old men are prone to invest the futures of young men with their own past sorrows.

Nature endows woman alternately with a particular strength which helps her to suffer and a weakness which counsels her to be resigned.

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

Imagination helps the realism of every detail, and only sees the beauties of the work.

A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.

Friendships last when each friend thinks he has a slight superiority over the other.