To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves and rarely understood others. Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile.

One should always be a little improbable.

Lean on principles, one day they'll end up giving way.

Her capacity for family affection is extraordinary. When her third husband died, her hair turned quite gold from grief.

The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by taking my books away from me. It's perfectly awful to let the mind grind itself away between the upper and nether millstones of regret and remorse without respite; with books my life would be livable -- any life.