A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.

The love of nature is the only love that does not deceive human hopes.

Nothing is unimportant to a man plunged in despair. He is as credulous as a criminal sentenced to death who listens to a lunatic raving to him about how he can escape through the keyhole.

Grief ennobles the commonest people because it has its own essential grandeur. To shine with the luster of grief, a person need only be sincere.

To be happy, a man must love his wife as she chooses to be loved.

I am a galley slave to pen and ink.

Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it.