How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene. 'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come back in comfort. All or nothing, that's my motto.' 'And a very good one,' said Madame Vauquer.

When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.

In Paris every man must have had a love affair. What woman wants something that no other woman ever wanted.

Genuine sorrows are very tranquil in appearance in the deep bed they have dug for themselves. But, seeming to slumber, they corrode the soul like that frightful acid which penetrates crystal.

Necessity is the spur of genius.

Misfortune makes of certain souls a vast desert through which rings the voice of God.