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

Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?

Women? In order to realize how far these charming creatures we idealize can carry their cruelty, we must see them among themselves!

Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.

Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is in getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch.

Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.

What is a child, monsieur, but the image of two beings, the fruit of two sentiments spontaneously blended?