A one-eyed man is much more incomplete than a blind man, for he knows what it is that's lacking.

Great griefs exhaust. They discourage us with life. The man into whom they enter feels something taken from him. In youth, their visit is sad; later on, it is ominous.

Every idea must have a visible enfolding.

He caught her, she fell, he caught her in his arms, he held her tightly unconscious of what he was doing. He held her up, though tottering himself. He felt as if his head were filled with smoke; flashes of light slipped through his eyelids; his thoughts vanished; it seemed to him that he was performing a religious act, and that he was committing a profanation. Moreover, he did not feel one passionate desire for this ravishing woman, whose form he felt against his heart. He was lost in love.

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.

When a person opens a book, he can never be in prison.

The little people must be sacred to the big ones, and it is from the rights of the weak that the duty of the strong is comprised.