I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity.

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

The Police and the Society of Jesus posses in common the virtue of never forsaking their enemies as friends.

It would be curious to know what leads a man to become a stationer rather than a baker, when he is no longer compelled, as among the Egyptians, to succeed to his father's craft.

If certain women walk straight into adultery, there are many others who cling to numerous hopes, and commit sin only after wandering through a maze of sorrows.

One admirable trait in women is their lack of illusions about themselves. They never reason about their most blameworthy actions; their feelings carry them away. Even their dissimulation comes naturally to them, and in them crime is free of all baseness. Most of the time they simply do not know how it happened.

What makes friendship indissolute and what doubles its charms is a feeling we find lacking in love: I mean certitude.