Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished.

The thing that must be preserved in all situations whatever is the reputation of one's character.

A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

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

I never was able to believe in the existence of next year except as in a metaphysical notion.

Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. - The shores of existence are strewn with them.

[The Germans] so easily confuse obstinacy with energy, and rudeness with firmness.