I am the most interesting book of all.

Life, that is Paris! Paris, that is life!

Soul is as necessary in a painting as body.

What am I? Nothing. What would I be? Everything.

I long to see everything, to know everything, to learn everything!.

To a woman who knows her own mind men can only be a minor consideration.

Nothing is ever so good or so bad in reality as it is in the anticipation.

... I will never love, for I should never be loved as I desire to be loved.

The expectation of an unpleasantness is more terrible than the thing itself.

Let us love dogs; let us love only dogs! Men and cats are unworthy creatures.

To say that my grief will be eternal would be ridiculous - nothing is eternal.

They who see only what they wish to see in those around them are very fortunate.

Art just consists in making us swallow the commonplaces by charming us eternally.

When I die my death will be caused by indignation at the stupidity of human nature.

When one misses an opportunity one is apt to fancy that another will never present itself.

I was born to be a remarkable woman; it matters little in what way or how. ... I shall be famous or I will die.

Art ... is as much a source of happiness for the beginner as for the master. One forgets everything in one's work.

To live, to have so much ambition, to suffer, to cry, to fight and, at the end, forgetfulness ... as if I had never existed.

Time is the most terrible, the most discouraging, the most unconquerable of all obstacles, and one that may exist when no other does.

I want to live faster, faster, faster! ... I fear that this desire to live always at high pressure is the presage of a short existence. Who knows?

Art consists precisely in making us admire old stories, charming us with them eternally, as Nature charms with her eternal sun, her ancient earth, and her men built all on the same pattern, and all animated by the same feelings.

one life would not suffice, mine especially. To touch everything and leave nothing after oneself! Ah! my God! I hope better than that. Ah! I am very cowardly, and under the blow of such a terror I am ready to believe in priests.

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