One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

She was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked as if they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest. She was usually in love with somebody, and, as her passion was never returned, she had kept all her illusions. She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy.

As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.

Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

I have pleasures, and passions, but the joy of life is gone. I am going under: the morgue yawns for me. I go and look at my zinc-bed there. After all, I had a wonderful life, which is, I fear, over.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.