“My chief occupation, despite appearances, has always been love.”

“Cultivating whatever gave pleasure to my senses was always the chief business of my life; I have never found any occupation more important. Feeling that I was born for the sex opposite mine, I have always loved it and done all that I could to make myself loved by it. I have also been extravagantly fond of good food and irresistibly drawn by anything which could excite curiosity.”

“Believing passionately in the palpably not true... is the chief occupation of mankind.”

“The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.”

“In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”

“While friendship has been by far the chief source of my happiness, acquaintance or general society has always meant little to me, and I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of.”