Whatever she might say, I was sure in advance to hold a contrary opinion; and she the same.

Toward the fourth year of our marriage it was tacitly decided between us that no intellectual community was possible, and we made no further attempts at it.

As to the simplest objects, we each held obstinately to our own opinions.

With strangers we talked upon the most varied and most intimate matters, but not with each other.

Sometimes, in listening to my wife talk with others in my presence, I said to myself: 'What a woman! Everything that she says is a lie!' And I was astonished that the person with whom she was conversing did not see that she was lying.