I no longer find such pleasure in that preeminently good society, of which I was once so fond. It seems to me that beneath a cloak of clever talk it proscribes all energy, all originality. If you are not a copy, people accuse you of being ill-mannered.

Love is like fever; it comes and goes without the will having any part of the process.

Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one.

I have a bad memory for facts.

A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

The first characteristic of Rossini's music is speed - a speed which removes from the soul all the sombre emotions that are so powerfully evoked within us by the slow strains in Mozart. I find also in Rossini a cool freshness, which, measure by measure, makes us smile with delight.

I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction," said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought.