Julien felt himself to be strong and resolute like a man who sees clearly into his own heart.

A good book is an event in my life.

Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?

After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.

I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.

A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.

I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction, " said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought.

Men cannot grieve as dogs do. But they grieve for many years.

In the world there is, parallel to the force of death and constraint, an enormous force of persuasion that is called culture.

...I expected a gift, you know, something nice and useless...

All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another.

[On Brazil:] In our country everything is weakening. The money is weak. Democracy is weak and the politicians are very weak. Everything that is weak dies one day.

Well, I grew up as a democrat.

Happiness in life is not a given, it must be seized.

In death, Alexander of Macedon's end differed no whit from his stable-boy's. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.

When I trade, I don't have an agency problem; I have my neck on the line. When a bank or banker trades, it's not his neck on the line.