Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice.

The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

An easy-going husband is the one indispensable comfort of life.

Scandals are like dandelion seeds--they are arrow-headed, and stick where they fall, and bring forth and multiply fourfold.

Petty laws breed great crimes.

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.

Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.

Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.

I do not wish to be a coward like the father of mankind and throw the blame upon a woman.

Familiarity is a magician that is cruel to beauty but kind to ugliness.

A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run.

The only thing for what you are bound is to be in your limit.

No weight in her pockets and far too much heaviness in her heart.

I have found that I always learn more from my mistakes than from my successes. If you aren't making some mistakes, you aren't taking enough chances.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Coming [to Paris] has been a wonderful experience, surprising in many respects, one of them being to find how much of an American I am.

Be careful what you ask of Heaven; it might be granted.

The gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage.

I never would have guessed I would be making science fiction and horror films.

One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

But we wish to give the Jews a Homeland. Not by dragging them ruthlessly out of their sustaining soil, but rather by removing them carefully, roots and all, to a better terrain.