I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.
Love is a teacher, but one must know how to acquire it, for it is difficult to acquire, it is dearly bought, by long work over a long time, for one ought to love not for a chance moment but for all time. Anyone, even a wicked man, can love by chance.
It is amazing what one ray of sunshine can do for a man!
But gamblers know how a man can sit for almost twenty-four hours at cards, without looking to right, or to left.
Don’t think I’m talking nonsense because I’m drunk. I’m not a bit drunk. Brandy’s all very well, but I need two bottles to make me drunk.
There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.
They have this social justification for every nasty thing they do!
For if there’s no everlasting God, there’s no such thing as virtue, and there’s no need of it.
It is necessary that every man have at least somewhere to go. For there are times when one absolutely must go at least somewhere!
What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning...
Love life more than the meaning of it?
To care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.
Pass us by, and forgive us our happiness.
Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea.
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them – the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
I punish myself for my whole life, my whole life I punish.
It’s the moon that makes it so still, weaving some mystery.
Suppose, gentleman, that man is not stupid.
Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him.
The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.