“The oddities of charming people exasperate us, but there are few if any charming people who are not, at the same time, odd.”

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

“Art is not alone in imparting charm and mystery to the most insignificant things; pain is endowed with the same power to bring them into intimate relation with ourselves.”

“At the start of a new love as its ending, we are not exclusively attached to the object of that love, but rather the desire to love from which it will presently arise (and, later on, the memory it leaves behind) wanders voluptuously through a zone of interchangeable charms -- simply natural charms, it may be, gratification of appetite, enjoyment of one's surroundings -- which are harmonious enough for it not to feel at a loss in the presence of any one of them.”

“At that time, he was satisfying a sensual curiosity by experiencing the pleasures of people who live for love. He had believed he could stop there, that he would not be obliged to learn their sorrows; how small a thing her charm was for him now compared with the astounding terror that extended out from it like a murky halo, the immense anguish of not knowing at every moment what she had been doing, of not possessing her everywhere and always!”

“The charms of a passing woman are usually in direct relation to the speed of her passing.”

“Let us be grateful to people whomake us happy; they are thecharming gardeners who make oursouls bloom.”