“If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: 'Because it was he; because it was me.”

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”

“I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.”

“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”

“If any one should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I feel it could no otherwise be expressed than by making answer, ‘Because it was he; because it was I.’ There is, beyond what I am able to say, I know not what inexplicable and inevitable power that brought on this union.”

“I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood.... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.”