A woman we love rarely satisfies all our needs, and we deceive her with a woman whom we do not love.

It is seldom indeed that one parts on good terms, because if one were on good terms one would not part.

When I am not too sad to listen, music is my consolation.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Until I saw Chardin's paintings, I never realized how much beauty lay around me in my parents' house, in the half-cleared table, in the corner of a tablecloth left awry, in the knife beside the empty oyster shell.

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.

There can be no peace of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for further desires.

Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.

In a way, the greatest praise of God is his denial by the atheist who thinks creation is so perfect it does not need a creator.

What a profound significance small things assume when the woman we love conceals them from us.