We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - gunpowder and romantic love.
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The need to express oneself in writing springs from a mal-adjustment to life, or from an inner conflict which the adolescent (or the grown man) cannot resolve in action. Those to whom action comes as easily as breathing rarely feel the need to break loose from the real, to rise above, and describe it... I do not mean that it is enough to be maladjusted to become a great writer, but writing is, for some, a method of resolving a conflict, provided they have the necessary talent.
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If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.
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Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul.
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Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.
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In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
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Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.
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Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.
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Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.
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A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises.
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Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.
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A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
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To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.
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Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form.
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The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life.
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