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

A woman must be a genius to create a good husband.

There are words which cut like steel.

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way down.

At thirty years a woman asks her lover to give her back the esteem she has forfeited for his sake; she lives only for him, her thoughts are full of his future, he must have a great career, she bids him make it glorious; she can obey, entreat, command, humble herself, or rise in pride; times without number she brings comfort when a young girl can only make moan.

Our most bitter enemies are our own kith and kin. Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother!