The first thing necessary to win the heart of a woman is opportunity.

Kindness steers no easy course. Attributing it to character, we seldom recognize the secret efforts of a noble heart, whereas we reward really wicked people for the evil they refrain from committing.

Society is no more indulgent than was the God of Genesis.

We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.

If we all said to people's faces what we say behind one another's backs, society would be impossible.

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.

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.