The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.

A good book is an event in my life.

Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.

For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?

Spring appears and we are once more children.

War was then no longer this noble and unified outburst of souls in love with glory that he had imagined from Napoleon's proclamations.

Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.