“The vague torment of ambition.”

Blow the candle out, I don’t need to see what my thoughts look like.

I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

The conclusion does not belong to the artist.

If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.

Paris flared – Paris, which the divine sun had sown with light, and where in glory waved the great future harvest of Truth and of Justice.

It is not I who am strong, it is reason, it is truth.

When lovers kiss on the cheeks, it is because they are searching, feeling for one another’s lips. Lovers are made by a kiss.

What will be the death of me are buillabaisses, food spiced with pimiento, shellfish, and a load of exquisite rubbish which I eat in disproportionate quantities.

She was cold by nature, self-love predominating over passion; rather than being virtuous, she preferred to have her pleasures all to herself.

The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men.

The thought is a deed. Of all deeds she fertilizes the world most.

Has science ever retreated? No! It is Catholicism which has always retreated before her, and will always be forced to retreat.

It all seemed a hollow sham now – that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she’d had enough of that; she wanted to live!

The past was but the cemetery of our illusions: one simply stubbed one’s toes on the gravestones.

Classical education has deformed everything, and has imposed upon us as geniuses men of correct, facile talent, who follow the beaten track.

An entire lifetime would not be long enough for you to exhaust the glance of the young harvest-girl.

Ambition is when you close the gap between your circumstances and expectations.

What we have, what we wish we had – ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed, investments won, investments lost, elections won, elections lost – these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us.

I remember the whole thing with the word ambition. I was messed up for a while because I associated it with certain people who just want to be famous. I think, for a while, it was kind of a dirty word for women.

There is, however, another purpose to which academies contribute. When they consist of a limited number of persons, eminent for their knowledge, it becomes an object of ambition to be admitted on their list.

To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted my no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forgo even ambition when the end is gained – who can say this is not greatness?

I am not ambitious to appear a man of letters: I could be content the world should think I had scarce looked upon any other book than that of nature.

All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

Few are more unhappy than those who have great ambition, but little energy to urge it into activity.