Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.
It would be next to impossible to discover a handsome woman who was not also a vain woman.
Truth takes the stamp of the souls it enters. It is rigorous and rough in arid souls, but tempers and softens itself in loving natures.
It is easier to be mistaken about the true than the beautiful.
To see the world is to judge the judges.
Imitate time; it destroys everything slowly; it undermines, it wears away, it detaches, it does not wrench.
Thoughts there are, that need no embodying, no form, no expression. It is enough to hint at them vaguely; a word, and they are heard and seen.
The simple-hearted and sincere never do more than half deceive themselves.
I quit Paris unwillingly, because I must part from my friends; and I quit the country unwillingly, because I must part from myself.
In order to be happy, think of the ills you have been spared.
In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.
Those readiest to criticise are often least able to appreciate.
A man who shows no defect is a fool or a hypocrite, whom we should mistrust. There are defects so bound to fine qualities that they announce them, – defects which it is well not to correct.
How many books there are whose reputation is made that would not obtain it were it now to make?
Contempt for private wrongs was one of the features of ancient morals.
He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness.
Beautiful works do not intoxicate, but they enchant.
In these times gain is not only a matter of greed, but of ambition.
Which is more misshapen, – religion without virtue, or virtue without religion?
To the liberal ideas of the age must be opposed the moral ideas of all ages.