Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.

The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.

A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.

The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.

I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.

Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.

Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.

Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.

The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.

I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.

If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.

Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.

January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer's forehead.

I am going away with him to an unknown country where I shall have no past and no name, and where I shall be born again with a new face and an untried heart.

A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.

On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us - ah! what a dream, to live in that! - the other stifles us at the first breath.

To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.

You do not notice changes in what is always before you.

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.

You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.

Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.

One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.

No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.

My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.

In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.

The faults of husbands are often caused by the excess virtues of their wives.

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.

Writing only leads to more writing.

There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for in another moment they will recover their illusion.

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.

I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer.

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom others when it is a bitter tonic and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.

If hes getting married hes not longer interesting.

I am going awaywith him to an unknown country where I shall have no past and no name, and where I shall be born again with a new face and an untried heart.

I only hope that people understand that if I've just come from the gym or am fresh off a red-eye flight and look like a sweaty mess, I might not be super keen on photo ops!

Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating, and real life is mysterious. Sometimes it's hard to stop staring at the strut and squawk of my fellow man. They can be quite inspiring. Sometimes it's hard to stop talking to them to see what in the world they're thinking.

Pictures can be devastating. Who allowed John Kerry to get himself photographed windsurfing in a flowered swimsuit? Anyone in the real world in that operation?

I love to go to Ireland just to relax.

Writers of literature make very little money.

I consider what I write to be literature. I choose the words carefully.