The Thing Is To Dazzle

I Learned Very Early That Our Health Is Always Impaired By Some Excess Either Of Food Or Abstinence, And I Never Had Any Physician Except Myself.

Desires Are But Pain And Torment, And Enjoyment Is Sweet Because It Delivers Us From Them.

I Have Always Loved Truth So Passionately That I Have Often Resorted To Lying As A Way Of Introducing It Into The Minds Which Were Ignorant Of Its Charms.

As To The Deceit Perpetrated Upon Women, Let It Pass, For, When Love Is In The Way, Men And Women As A General Rule Dupe Each Other.

The Reader Of These Memoirs Will Discover That I Never Had Any Fixed Aim Before My Eyes, And That My System, If It Can Be Called A System, Has Been To Glide Away Unconcernedly On The Stream Of Life, Trusting To The Wind Wherever It Led.