Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.
[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.
Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.
There is no bore like a clever bore.
In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa.
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.