A good book is an event in my life.
A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.
Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion.
To describe happiness is to diminish it.
God's only excuse is that he does not exist
For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?
There are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness.
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love
A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.
Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.
A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.
Never had he found himself so close to those terrible weapons of feminine artillery.
If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.
Prudery is a kind of avarice, the worst of all.
She had caprices of a marvellous unexpectedness, and how is any one to imitate a caprice?
The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.
All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.
Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.