So much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have some bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts.
Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.
No matter how long I live, I shall live longer than you will love me.
Be good, be young, be true! Evil is nothing but vanity, let us have the pride of good, and above all let us never despair.
One has always had a childhood, whatever one becomes.
Love without esteem cannot go far or reach high. It is an angel with only one wing.
Memory is a paradise out of which fate cannot drive us.
The chains of marriage are so heavy that it takes two to bear them, sometimes three.
The child is small, and he includes the man; the brain is narrow, and it harbours thought; the eye is but a point, and it covers leagues.
Everything was believed except the truth.
We must have done something very wicked before we were born, or else we must be going to be very happy indeed when we are dead, for God to let this life have all the tortures of expiation and all the sorrows of an ordeal.
We are not allowed to have hearts, under penalty of being hooted down.
Women sometimes allow you to be unfaithful to their love; they never allow you to wound their self-esteem.
The reason why women grown bad are worse than men is because it is the best that turns to the worst.
Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you.
Does the open wound in another’s breast soften the pain of the gaping wound in our own? Or does the blood which is welling from another man’s side staunch that which is pouring from our own? Does the general anguish of our fellow creatures lessen our own private and particular anguish? No, no, each suffers on his own account, each struggles with his own grief, each sheds his own tears.
My son, be worthy of your noble name, worthily borne by your ancestors for over five hundred years. Remember it’s by courage, and courage alone, that a nobleman makes his way nowadays. Don’t be afraid of opportunities, and seek out adventures. My son, all I have to give you is fifteen ecus, my horse, and the advice you’ve just heard. Make the most of these gifts, and have a long, happy life.
There are some situations which men understand by instinct, by which reason is powerless to explain; in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow. Those who hear the bitter cry are as much impressed as if they listened to an entire poem, and when th sufferer is sincere they are right in regarding his outburst as sublime.
Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!
He pointed out to him the bearings of the coast, explained to him the variations of the compass, and taught him to read in that vast book opened over our heads which they call heaven, and where God writes in azure with letters of diamonds.