A voyage without companionship, that is to say without conversation, is one of the saddest pleasures of life.

[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.

[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.

Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?

Every time a new nation, America or Russia for instance, advances toward civilization, the human race perfects itself; every time an inferior class emerges from enslavement and degradation, the human race again perfects itself.

All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive.

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.