Virginity, like all monstrosities, possesses special riches and its own absorbing grandeur. Among the chaste, life forces are economized and thus gain in resistance and durability.

The best painters, as they progress in reputation and towards perfection, are found to dispense more and more with the technique of the art, for simpler methods. Simplicity never fails to charm.

No society is complete without some victim, a creature to pity, to jeer at, to scorn or to protect.

But woman brings disorder into society through passion.

Danger arouses interest. Where death is involved, the vilest criminal invariably stirs a little compassion.

What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.