A man who stops at nothing short of the law is very clever indeed!
A rent in your clothes is a mishap, a stain on them is a vice.
Doubt follows white-winged hope with trembling steps.
No frozen-hearted woman ever I laid eyes on but has made duty her religion.
Religious ecstasy is a madness of thought freed of its bodily bonds, whereas in the ecstasy of love, the forces of twin natures unite, blend and embrace one another.
To forget is the great secret of strong creative natures; to forget is the way nature herself who knows no past and who at every hour begins the mysteries of her untiring labors afresh.
A woman filled with faith in the one she loves is the creation of a novelist’s imagination.
Does not any limit imposed upon one inspire a desire to go beyond it? Does not our keenest suffering arise when our free will is crossed?
As a rule, only the poor are generous. Rich people can always find excellent reasons for not handing over twenty thousand francs to a relative.
Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gestures or quick movements inspire involuntary disrespect.
Sometimes, one gesture comprises an entire drama, the accent of one word ruins an entire existence, and the indifference of one glance kills the happiest passion.
Glory is a poison, good to be taken in small doses.
Give to a wounded heart seclusion; consolation nor reason ever effected anything in such a case.
Grief ennobles the commonest people because it has its own essential grandeur. To shine with the luster of grief, a person need only be sincere.
A woman’s greatest charm consists in a constant appeal to a man’s generosity by a gracious declaration of helplessness which fills him with pride and awakens the most magnificent feelings in his heart.
A husband can commit no greater blunder than to discuss his wife, if she is virtuous, with his mistress; unless it be to mention his mistress, if she is beautiful, to his wife.
No woman allows her lover to descend from his pedestal. Even a god is not forgiven the slightest pettiness.
Most women wish to feel that their spirit has been violated. Do they not, indeed, flatter themselves on never yielding save to force?
Fools gain greater advantages through their weakness than intelligent men through their strength. We watch a great man struggling against fate and we do not lift a finger to help him. But we patronize a grocer who is headed for bankruptcy.
The election of a deputy to the Legislature offers a noble and majestic spectacle comparable only to the delivery of a child. It involves the same efforts, the same impurities, the same laceration, and the same triumph.