“Love is the most terrible, and also the most generous of the passions; it is the only one which includes in its dreams the happiness of someone else.”

“Uncertainty is the worst of all evils until the moment when reality makes us regret uncertainty.”

“Botany is the art of insulting flowers in Greek and Latin.”

“A widow is like a frigate of which the first captain has been shipwrecked.”

“Flowing water is at once a picture and a music, which causes to flow at the same time from my brain, like a limpid and murmuring rivulet, sweet thoughts, charming reveries, and melancholy remembrances.”

“The soul of this man is his clothes.”

“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”

“If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking. In the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not toalter me.”