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.

I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.

A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men...

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.

But what is the heart, madame? It's worth less than people think. it's quite accommodating, it accepts anything. You give it whatever you have, it's not very particular. But the body... Ha! That's something else again! It has a cultivated taste, as they say, it knows what it wants. A heart doesn't choose, and one always ends up by loving.

Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.

I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.