Passions are less mischievous than boredom, for passions tend to diminish and boredom increase.

Happy men are grave. They carry their happiness cautiously, as they would a glass filled to the brim which the slightest movement could cause to spill over, or break.

Next to the wound, what women make best is the bandage.

For in Paris, whenever God puts a pretty woman there (the streets), the Devil, in reply, immediately puts a fool to keep her.

They had...finished their lives before their death - which is not always the end of life and often comes long before the end.

The artist's morality lies in the force and truth of his description.

The crimes of extreme civilization are probably worse than those of extreme barbarism, because of their refinement, the corruption they presuppose, and their superior degree of intellectuality.