As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.

The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.

Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself

We lose all that time which we might employ better.

It is not our criminal actions that require courage to confess, but those which are ridiculous and foolish.

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

Do not base your life on the judgments of others; first, because they are as likely to be mistaken as you are, and further, because you cannot know that they are telling you their true thoughts.