What criterion ought one to adopt to judge one's fellows? After all, there was not a single person he knew who might not, in certain circumstances, prove capable of a shameful action.

... Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth...

When one feels oneself smitten by love for a woman, one ought to say to oneself, “What are her surroundings? What has been her life? All one’s future happiness lies in the answer.

... there was no need for him to hasten towards the attainment of a happiness already captured and held in a safe place, which would not escape his grasp again.

... the idea that 'Life' contains situations more interesting and more romantic than all the romances ever written.

Why did you not forget your heart also? I should never have let you have that back." ...

... the courage of one's opinions is always a form of calculating cowardice in the eyes of the 'other side'...

... rejoicing in a peace which brings only an increase of anxiety, ...

She [Mme des Laumes] belonged to that half of the human race in whom the curiosity the other half feels about the people it does not know is replaced by an interest in the people it does.

One felt that in her renunciation of life she had deliberately abandoned those places in which she might at least have been able to see the man she loved, for others where he had never trod.

Presently, one after another, like shyly hopping sparrows, her friends arrived, black against the snow.

Being creative is not being afraid of being lost.

Buddhism doesn't tell you what is false and what is true but it encourages you to find out for yourself.

I'm not actually a big musical fan.

If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial?

I do not fight battles that cannot be won. Do not confuse that with cowardice.

If you are under control you're going too slow.

I don't know if I'd put labels on myself, but I do feel that when women are empowered, they have the power to transform society.

People blame their environment, their education, their opportunities, their luck, for their condition. They are wrong. There is one person to blame — and only one — THEMSELVES.

I never worry about the social backlash against my work because I'm a man in a dress, and somehow American society creates a buffer on how severe things are when you put a man in a dress.

Strain your brain more than your eye... You can copy a thing to a certain limit. Then you must use intellect.