“Of all our games, love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul...”

“Happiness is a masterpiece: the slightest error compromises it, the slightest hesitation undermines it, the slightest excess corrupts it, the slightest vulgarity defiles it.”

“Attianus had been right in his conjectures: the virgin gold of respect would be too soft without some alloy of fear.”

“Tout bonheur est un chef-d'oeuvre: la moindre erreur le fausse, la moindre hsitation l'altre, la moindre lourder le dpare, la moindre sottise l'abtit.”

“Le souvenir n'est qu'un regard pos de temps en temps sur des tres devenus intrieurs,mais qui ne dpendent pas de la mmoire pour continuer d'exister.”

“It is not by blood, anyhow, that man's true continuity is established: Alexander's direct heir is Caesar, and not the frail infant born of a Persian princess in an Asiatic citadel; Epaminondas, dyi...”

“The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. ...”

“From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.”

“See the moon? It hates us.”

“I have little use for religion as it is practiced, or for astrology, or for belief in witchcraft or omens of good or ill-luck. I think they all stem from some insufficiency in mens minds, perhaps f...”

“It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent.”

“So if you can look at all things without allowing pleasure to creep in - at a face, a bird, the colour of a sari, the beauty of a sheet of water shimmering in the sun, or anything that gives deligh...”