Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. ... there are no age limits for love.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.

A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.

Faith, I am no such fool; everyone for himself in this desert of selfishness which is called life.

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

It is not enough for a landscape to be interesting in itself. Eventually there must be a moral and historic interest.