“The one advantage of being childless is that one can choose one's children and so avoid the bizarre game of chance in which one passes one's best — or one's worst — genes to one's poor innocent offspring.”

“Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are barren or not, they carry with them to the grave the shrivelled innocence of an old maid?”

“It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary; because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.”

“The only thing that can console one for being poor is extravagance. The only thing that can console one for being rich is economy.”

“One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.”

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”

“The man that is poor is not the one who has no money but one without a dream. Children of destiny can never be poor, though they may experience temporary lacks.”

“The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.”

“The best thing you can do for the poor is.. not be one of them”

“One learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence.”