“There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.”

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

Few men have been admired of their familiars.

A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

In nine lifetimes, you’ll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.

Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

She will do this job perfectly for you; don’t bother your head about it.

The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

Prayer is a matter of giving ourselves to God and learning His laws, so that He can do through us what He wants the most.

When I did the first edit of Les plages, it was very dry and very square in a way. I was just saying the minimum. I said, Well, if this is the minimum, I don’t make it. So I tried to make it more refined.

People know it’s not easy, and even though you have strong feeling and desire and endless love, it doesn’t always happen.

Wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities.

Friendship is far more human.

You have to be more fake.’ You see some of these actors, they have a permanent smile on their face. How can they do that? It really fascinates me.

Traveling is, and has always been, more popular than the traveler.

Until we understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves. And this drive to self-knowledge, for women, is more than a search for identity.