Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is evil? Can the heart become misshapen and afflicted with ugly, incurable deformities under disproportionate misfortune, like a spinal column bent beneath a too low roof?

What makes night within us may leave stars.

Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.

To have lied is to have suffered.

One of the hardest tasks is to extract continually from one's soul an almost inexhaustible ill will.

Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.

Do you know what friendship is... it is to be brother and sister; two souls which touch without mingling, two fingers on one hand.