What is art? Nature concentrated.

I yield to your wishes. It is the privilege of the women whom we love more than they love us to make the men who love them ignore the ordinary rules of common-sense.

A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.

Nothing is irredeemably ugly but sin.

Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?

Tradesmen regard an author with a mixed feeling of terror, compassion and curiosity.

Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gestures or quick movements inspire involuntary disrespect.