It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.

Woman's weakness, not man's merit, oftenest gains the suitor's victory.

Covetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honor, and feeding on selfishness.

It is when their age of passions is past that great men produce their masterpieces, just as it is after volcanic eruptions that the soil is most fertile.

I have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me.

In great matters, men behave as they are expected to; in little ones, as they would naturally

When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.