I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.

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

If I meet the Christian Deity, I am lost: He is a tyrant and as such, is full of ideas of vengeance; His Bible speaks of nothing but fearful punishments. I never loved Him! I could never even believe that anyone did love Him sincerely. He is devoid of pity.... He will punish me in some abominable manner.

Politics in the middle of things of the imagination is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert.

It is better to have a prosaic husband and to take a romantic lover.

In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way.