A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.

Every bad institution of this world ends by suicide.

When I speak to you about myself, I am speaking to you about yourself. How is it you don't see that?

Kings are for nations in their swaddling-clothes: France has attained her majority.

I exist," murmurs someone whose name is Everyone. "I'm young and in love; I am old and I want rest; I work, I prosper, I do good business, I have houses to rent, money in State Securities; I am happy, I have wife and children; I like all these things and I want to go on living, so leave me alone."... There are moments when all this casts a deep chill on the large-minded pioneers of the human race.

It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.

To contemplate is to look at shadows.