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.

Faith, I am no such fool; everyone for himself in this desert of selfishness which is called life.

Sometimes the impact of Mozart's music is so immediate that the vision in the mind remains blurred and incomplete, while the soul seems to be directly invaded, drenched in wave upon wave of melancholy.

It is not enough for a landscape to be interesting in itself. Eventually there must be a moral and historic interest.

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.

Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?

After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.