As conflagrations light up a whole city, so revolutions illuminate the whole human race. And what is the revolution that we shall cause? the Revolution of the True.

You must be the best judge of your own happiness.

Why not seize the pleasure at once?—How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

I like adventures, and I’m going to find some; I’m tired of being told that girls mustn’t run and climb and laugh out loud, as if joy were a crime, when all I want is to use the strength I have, and see where it will take me, and make something worth the trouble of being alive.

Better be happy old maids than unhappy wives, and teach your girls to be contented with the home you have, and the friends you keep, and the duties that lie nearest; make this home happy, so that you may be fit for homes of your own, if ever they come, and contented here if they are not.

I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free.

I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing… A new Hedonism—that is what our century wants.

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel.

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.

I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.