Humanity is not perfect in any fashion; no more in the case of evil than in that of good. The criminal has his virtues, just as the honest man has his weaknesses.
Se uno vuole farsi fuori, come si fa a impedirglielo? A me vogliono farmi fuori in tanti, ma non mi hanno tolto la voglia di vivere.
He'd call me false and faithless and I've always had a weakness for those two words; next to cruel, they're the nicest words for a woman to hear, and not so hard to earn.
Fools – in other words most people – imagine that it would be a wonderful achievement to be able to recover our youth; but those who know life are aware how little it would profit us. ("A Woman's Vengeance")
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
Quando cerchiamo di ingannare gli altri, a volte ci riusciamo, a volte no. Ma quando cerchiamo di ingannare noi stessi le nostre percentuali di successo sono eccezionali e in continua ascesa.
Tout ce que je veux dire, c'est que si les hommes cédaient toujours à ce qu'il y a en eux de plus humain, il y a longtemps qu'ils ne seraient plus des hommes.
He thought her more beautiful than ever, with a beauty that was at once feminine and angelic, that wholeness of beauty that had moved Petrarch to song and brought Dante to his knees.
In the chaos of sentiments and passions which defend a barricade, there is something of everything; there is bravery, youth, honor, enthusiasm, the ideal, conviction, the eager fury of the gamester, and above all, intervals of hope.
The cities make ferocious men because they may corrupt man. The mountain, the sea, the forest, make savage men; they development fierce side, but often without destroying the humane side.
When you shall have learned to know, and to love, you will still suffer. The day is born in tears. The luminous weep, if only over those in darkness.
That it was no doubt a dark hour, but that he should get through it; that after all he held his destiny, evil as it might be, in his own hand; that he was master of it. He clung to that thought.
Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than material amelioration... If three is anything more poignant than a body agonizing for want of bread, it is a soul dying of hunger for light.
People are unlearning certain things, and they do well, provided that, while unlearning them they learn this: There is no vacuum in the human heart. Certain demolitions take place, and it is well that they do, but on condition that they are followed ...
She had spears of straw and grass in her hair, not like Ophelia gone mad through contact with Hamlet's madness, but because she had slept in some stable loft.
Teach the ignorant as much as you can. Society is to blame for not giving free education: it is responsible for the darkness it creates. the soul in darkness sins, but the real sinner is he who caused the darkness
L’argot n’est autre chose qu’un vestiaire où la langue, ayant quelque mauvaise action à faire, se déguise. Elle s’y revêt de mots masques et de métaphores haillons.
Il était tard; ainsi qu'une médaille neuve La pleine lune s'étalait, Et la solennité de la nuit, comme un fleuve Sur Paris dormant ruisselait.
Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are done, we recognize one thing: that the human race has been badly manhandled, but that it has moved forward.
What a great thing, to be loved! What a greater thing still, to love! The heart becomes heroic though passion…if no one loved, the sun would go out.
In America, writers are afforded the freedom to express themselves in unlimited manners. Creative liberty is a privilege.
