It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown

We reproach people for talking about themselves but it is the subject they treat best

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself

It is possible that these millions of suns, along with thousands of millions more we cannot see, make up altogether but a globule of blood or lymph in the veins of an animal, of a minute insect, hatched in a world of whose vastness we can frame no conception, but which nevertheless would itself, in proportion to some other world, be no more than a speck of dust.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice

Make love now, by night and by day, in winter and in summer... You are in the world for that and the rest of life is nothing but vanity, illusion, waste. There is only one science, love, only one riches, love, only one policy, love. To make love is all the law, and the prophets.