The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the others - existences which….

The best painters, as they progress in reputation and towards perfection, are found to dispense more and more with the technique of the art, for simp….

In France we can cauterize wounds but we do not yet know any remedy for the injuries inflicted by a bon mot..

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence..

A mother who is really a mother is never free..

To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck that one encounters only too rare….

A mother's life, you see, is one long succession of dramas, now soft and tender, now terrible. Not an hour but has its joys and fears..

While seeking out the dead, I see nothing but the living..

A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his talent..

Gratitude is a fool's word; we find it in the dictionary, but it is not in the heart of man..

Good befalls us while we sleep, sometimes..

Sometimes, one gesture comprises an entire drama, the accent of one word ruins an entire existence, and the indifference of one glance kills the happ….

The greatest joy a petty soul can taste is to dupe a great soul and catch it in a snare..

Power does not consist in striking with force or with frequency, but in striking true..

Sensuality is the death of the soul..

Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual..

Love passes quickly, and passes like a street Arab, anxious to mark his way with mischief..

When chaste people need body or mind to resort to action or thought, they find steel in their muscles or knowledge in their intelligence. Theirs the ….

Nobody loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly, stupid or intelligent. We love because we love..

A naked woman is less dangerous than one who spreads her skirt skillfully to cover and exhibit everything at once..

Virtue is always too much of a piece and too ignorant of those shades of feeling and of temperament that enable us to squint when we are placed in a ….