A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.

When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.

The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live.

All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.

Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.

The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.