The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action.

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love

[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach.

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.

[To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.

Love which is only an episode in the life of men, is the entire history of the life of women.

Love is above the laws, above the opinion of men; it is the truth, the flame, the pure element, the primary idea of the moral world.