He who is not capable of enduring poverty is not capable of being free.

Strong and rare natures are thus created; misery, almost always a stepmother, is sometimes a mother; privation gives birth to power of soul and mind; distress is the nurse of self-respect; misfortune is a good breast for great souls.

A criminal remains a criminal whether he uses a convict's suit or a monarch's crown.

He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic. Nothing is more sublime.

A wedding is not house-keeping.

Civilization survives on the constant discovery of amity and an equal supply of damnation.

Inanimate objects sometimes appear endowed with a strange power of sight. A statue notices, a tower watches, the face of an edifice contemplates.