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.

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.

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

People who have been made to suffer by certain things cannot be reminded of them without a horror which paralyses every other pleasure, even that to be found in reading a story.

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

Any man who talks about his love affairs thereby proves he is ignorant of love and is moved only by vanity.

Perhaps men who cannot love passionately are those who feel the effect of beauty most keenly; at any rate this is the strongest impression women can make on them.