Madame Émile de Girardin, Delphine de Girardin, née Gay

The power of words is immense. A well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying army, to change defeat into victory, and to save an empire.

Love with men is not a sentiment, but an idea.

Innocence is ignorance.

Instinct is the nose of the mind.

Self-interest, that leprosy of the age, attacks us from infancy, and we are startled to observe little heads calculate before knowing how to reflect.

Servility is to devotion what hypocrisy is to virtue.

The best religion is the most tolerant.

To love one who loves you, to admire one who admires you, in a word to be the idol of one’s idol - is exceeding the limit of human joy; it is stealing fire from heaven, and deserves death.

Ennui is the rust of the mind born of idleness. It is unused tools that corrode.

Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired.

Grief is the culture of the soul, it is the true fertilizer.

Infidelity, like death, admits of no degrees.