A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.

Women prefer emotions to reasoning.

There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense... Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need.

I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.

The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.

Every true passion thinks only of itself.

People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of anextreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.