ALPHONSE KARR

We can invent only with memory.

Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.

Love in marriage should be the accomplishment of a beautiful dream, and not, as it too often is, the end.

Love is the most terrible, and also the most generous of the passions; it is the only one which includes in its dreams the happiness of someone else.

Uncertainty is the worst of all evils until the moment when reality makes us regret uncertainty.

Many people think that virtue consists of severity towards others.

If men knew all that women think, they would be twenty times more audacious.

Happiness is composed of misfortunes avoided.

Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.

I gather from a lawyer that there was a rehearsal yesterday. We haven't a hope. I know the presiding judge too: I've had the misfortune to sleep with his wife. He was specially picked.

The more things change, the more they are the same.

If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the murders.

The more change, the more it's the same thing.

Dress is the great business of all women, and the fixed idea of some.

Friendship between two women is always a plot against another one.

A widow is like a frigate of which the first captain has been shipwrecked.

Women's glances express what they dare not speak.

If women only knew the extent of their power!

One expresses well only the love he does not feel.

Flowing water is at once a picture and a music, which causes to flow at the same time from my brain, like a limpid and murmuring rivulet, sweet thoughts, charming reveries, and melancholy remembrances.

Botany is the art of insulting flowers in Greek and Latin.

Display is like shallow water, where you can see the muddy bottom.

I am thankful that thorns have roses.

A woman who writes commits two sins; she increases the number of books, and decreases the number of women.

Avoid all haste; calmness is an essential ingredient of politeness.