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

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

Yet, whether to the glory or to the shame of human nature, in what we call pleasure (with an excess of scorn, perhaps) there are abysses as deep as those of love.

The crimes of extreme civilization are certainly more atrocious than those of extreme barbarism.

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

We priests are the surgeons of souls, and it is our duty to deliver them of shameful secrets they would fain conceal, with hands careful to neither wound no pollute.

I did not want to be taken for a fool-the typical French reason for performing the worst of deeds without remorse.