The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.

I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.

I have no objection to anyone's sex life as long as they don't practice it in the street and frighten the horses.

The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.

Ah, on what little things does happiness depend.

He wants to enslave you.' 'I shudder at the thought of being free.

Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others.