Stones are mute teachers; they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.

Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.

Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original.

To a valet no man is a hero.

Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.

What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.