Necessity is the spur of genius.

Constancy will always be the genius of love, the indication of that strength which constitutes the poet. A man should possess all women in his wife, like those squalid poetasters of the seventeenth century who made fair Irises and dazzling Chloes of their lowly Manons.

Our most natural feelings are those we are loath to confess, and fatuity is among them.

In France we can cauterize wounds but we do not yet know any remedy for the injuries inflicted by a bon mot.

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.

Love is the only passion which suffers neither past nor future.

The passion of love is essentially selfish, while motherhood widens the circle of our feelings.