one's enjoyment is doubled when one can share it with a friend - and where can one find a more affectionate, a more intimate friend than in one's own family?

Tribulation first makes one realize what one is.

I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.

it is the nature of human beings, and especially of the mediocre ones, to wish to change everything. They desire it all the more because they know popularity will accrue rather to those who disturb than to those who maintain order.

Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness.

Let them eat cake.

Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?