Why not make an end of it all?... My life is a succession of griefs and bitter feelings.... What is death?... A very small matter,when all is said; only a fool would be concerned about it.

An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.

One-half, the finest half, of life is hidden from the man who does not love with passion.

The Russians imitate French ways, but always at a distance of fifty years.

The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse - as a luxury befitting a young man.

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

A novel is like a bow, and the violin that produces the sound is the reader's soul.