The first virtue of a young man today - that is, for the next fifty years perhaps, as long as we live in fear, and religion has regained its powers - is to be incapable of enthusiasm and not to have m...
To describe happiness is to diminish it.
Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.
The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.
Only great minds can afford a simple style.
All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
Friendship has its illusions no less than love.
The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.
The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.
In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.
Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.
This is the curse of our age, even the strangest aberrations are no cure for boredom.
Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.
If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.
God's only excuse is that he does not exist
A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.