Love is like some fresh spring, first a stream and then a river, changing its aspect and its nature as it flows to plunge itself in some boundless ocean, where restricted natures only find monotony, but where great souls are engulfed in endless contemplation.

Intuition, like the rays of the sun, acts only in an inflexibly straight line; it can guess right only on condition of never diverting its gaze; the freaks of chance disturb it.

Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy.

My writing table has seen all my wretchedness, knows all my plans, has overheard all my thoughts.

Like hunger, physical love is a necessity. But man's appetite for amour is never so regular or so sustained as his appetite for the delights of the table.

There are words which cut like steel.

With monuments as with men, position means everything.