A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

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.

Wounded pride can take a rich young man far who is surrounded by flatterers since birth.

There are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness.

It is difficult to escape from the prevailing disease of one's generation.

The first characteristic of Rossini's music is speed - a speed which removes from the soul all the sombre emotions that are so powerfully evoked within us by the slow strains in Mozart. I find also in Rossini a cool freshness, which, measure by measure, makes us smile with delight.

It is with blows dealt by public contempt that a husband kills his wife in the nineteenth century; it is by shutting the doors ofall the drawing-rooms in her face.