On the first of May, with my comrades of the catechism class, I laid lilac, chamomile and rose before the altar of the Virgin, and returned full of pride to show my blessed posy. My mother laughed her irreverent laugh and, looking at my bunch of flowers, which was bringing the may-bug into the sitting-room right under the lamp, she said: Do you suppose it wasn't already blessed before?

You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.

A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.

The day after that wedding night I found that a distance of a thousand miles, abyss and discovery and irremediable metamorphosis, separated me from the day before.

The faults of husbands are often caused by the excess virtues of their wives.

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.

I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we know only casually.