“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it
“It is the true season of love when we know that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
“Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem
““I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the same minute.
“I equally dislike the favor of the public with the love of a woman, they are both a cloying treacle to the wings of independence
“Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams
“It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar
“Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.