No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep.

If he had had all Peru in his pocket, he would certainly have given it to this dancer; but Gringoire had not Peru in his pocket; and besides, America was not yet discovered. (p. 66)

God has bestowed two gifts on man: hope and ignorance. Ignorance is the better of the two.

The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.

I didn't believe it could be so monstrous. It's wrong to be so absorbed in divine law as not to perceive human law. Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men tough that unknown thing?

Memory is a gulf that a word can move to its lowest depths.

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.