Fortune loves to give bedroom slippers to people with wooden legs, and gloves to those with no hands.

[Great artists] do not copy what they see, but what they desire.

It is a difficult matter to gain the affection of a cat. He is a philosophical, methodical animal, tenacious of his own habits, fond of order and neatness, and disinclined to extravagant sentiment. He will be your friend, if he finds you worthy of friendship, but not your slave.

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.

Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.

[A cat] will lie the whole evening on your knee, purring and happy in your society.

Whatever may have been said of the satiety of pleasure and of the disgust which usually follows passion, any man who has anything of a heart and who is not wretchedly and hopelessly blasé feels his love increased by his happiness, and very often the best way to retain a lover ready to leave is to give one's self up to him without reserve.