At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has made it! The boredom of married life inevitably destroys love, when love has preceded marriage. And yet, as a philosopher has observed, it speedily brings about, among people who are rich enough not to have to work, an intense boredom with all quiet forms of enjoyment. And it is only dried up hearts, among women, that it does not predispose to love.

When a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.

Life is very short, and it ought not to be spent crawling at the feet of miserable scoundrels.

...one of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.

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.

Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken. Only after it has been accomplished does it seem possible to those creatures of more common stuff.