A woman one loves rarely suffices for all our needs, so we deceive her with another whom we do not love.

Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments.

There is no doubt that a person's charms are less frequently a cause of love than a remark such as: 'No, this evening I shan't be free'.

The bonds between ourselves and another person exists only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.

Your soul is a dark forest. But the trees are of a particular species, they are genealogical trees.

Most of our faculties lie dormant because they can rely upon Habit, which knows what there is to be done and has no need of their services.

Masterpieces are no more than the shipwrecked flotsam of great minds.