But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.

Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.

The best prophet of the future is the past.

Society is now one polished horde, formed of two mighty tries, the Bores and Bored.

Friendship is Love without his wings!

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.

All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a Twin.

Out of chaos God made a world, and out of high passions comes a people.

Yes, love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire with angels shared, by Allah given to lift from earth our low desire.

I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.

The heart will break, but broken live on.

Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!

Who tracks the steps of glory to the grave?

My turn of mind is so given to taking things in the absurd point of view, that it breaks out in spite of me every now and then.

They never fail who die in a great cause.

Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.

The Cardinal is at his wit's end - it is true that he had not far to go.

Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore.

What should I have known or written had I been a quiet, mercantile politician or a lord in waiting? A man must travel, and turmoil, or there is no existence.

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands.

Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce.

Man is born passionate of body, but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his main-spring of Mind. But God help us all! It is at present a sad jar of atoms.

A mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, you are lovers; and when it is over, anything but friends.

Her great merit is finding out mine - there is nothing so amiable as discernment.

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.

Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.

Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

Sometimes we are less unhappy in being deceived by those we love, than in being undeceived by them.

I love not man the less, but Nature more.

I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions.

I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions.

Man's love is of man's life a part; it is a woman's whole existence. In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.

It is useless to tell one not to reason but to believe - you might as well tell a man not to wake but sleep.

The busy have no time for tears.

Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.

I know that two and two make four - and should be glad to prove it too if I could - though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.

Life's enchanted cup sparkles near the brim.

I do detest everything which is not perfectly mutual.

Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

There is no instinct like that of the heart.

Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life.

Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil.

Lovers may be - and indeed generally are - enemies, but they never can be friends, because there must always be a spice of jealousy and a something of Self in all their speculations.

For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear.

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.

A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress.

Sincerity may be humble but she cannot be servile.