There’s nothing so fearsome as the revolt of a sheep,” said de Marsay.

Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is in...

A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.

Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.

Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!

Misfortune, no less than happiness, inspires us to dream.

To that point, he had always found the vicomtesse overflowing with friendly politeness, that sweet-flowing grace conferred by an aristocratic education, and which is never truly there unless it comes, automatically and unthinkingly, straight from...

If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.

Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless.

Love is the poetry of the senses.

What is art? Nature concentrated.

(…) Qual sera o destino de Helène? O meu, certamente. Que meios têm as mães de assegurar às suas filhas que o homem ao qual elas serão entregues será o esposo de seus corações? As...

All happiness depends on courage and work.

Have you ever plunged into the immensity of space and time by reading the geological treatises of Cuvier? Borne away on the wings of his genius, have you hovered over the illimitable abyss of the...

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

Children, dear and loving children, can alone console a woman for the loss of her beauty.

To kill a relative of whom you are tired is something. But to inherit his property afterwards, that is genuine pleasure.

To our shame a woman is never so much attached to us as when we suffer

[Raphael’s] great superiority is due to the instinctive sense which, in him, seems to desire to shatter form. Form is, in his figures, what it is in ourselves, an interpreter for the communication of ideas...

Ha a nők elmésnek, tehetségesnek találják, a férfiak el fogják hinni, hogy az, hacsak maga ki nem ábrándítja őket. Akkor aztán mindent akarhat, mindenütt megvetheti a lábát. Akkor majd megtudja, hogy a világ nem egyéb,...

A mother who is really a mother is never free.

A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.

The country is provincial; it becomes ridiculous when it tries to ape Paris.

They must have the defects of their qualities.

Was she acting entirely consciously? No: women are always sincere, even in the midst of their most shocking duplicities, because it is always some natural emotion which dominates them. Perhaps, having given this young man...

Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.

One should believe in marriage as in the immortality of the soul.

It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion; it is a joy of every moment.

Chance, my dear, is the sovereign deity in child-bearing.

Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.

Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another’s happiness than in your own.

He looked like some plant bleached by darkness.

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.

A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea.

However,” he continued, “this canvas is preferable to the paintings of that varlet Rubens, with his mountains of Flemish flesh sprinkled with vermilion, his waves of red hair and his medley of colors.

Ön, ha felsőbbrendű ember, menjen egyenest emelt fővel előre. De meg kell majd küzdenie az irigységgel, a rágalommal, a középszerűséggel, az egész világgal.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.

Those who spend too fast never grow rich.

You may imitate, but never counterfeit.

Though the human heart may have to pause for rest when climbing the heights of affection it rarely stops on the slippery slope of hatred.

Of necessity she went further in aversion than she had gone in love, for her hatred was not in proportion to her love but to her disappointed hopes.

First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint the second time.

A man is a poor creature compared to a woman.

Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.

A man like you is a god, not just a machine covered with skin, but a theater where fine feelings sprout and grow-and feelings are all that matters, as far as I’m concerned. Is a...

And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink.

Happy?” asked Aquilina, with dreadful look, and a smile full of pity and terror. “Ah, you do not know what it is to be condemned to a life of pleasure.