She was in bed.
"Let me get up," she said, "for I want to speak to you." "Do not disturb yourself; we can talk all the same, and I think you much prettier as you are." "I am very glad of it." "What have you got to tell me ?" "Nothing, except to speak of the profession I am going to adopt.

I am going to practice virtue in order to find a man who loves it only to destroy it." "Quite true; but almost everything is like that in this life.

Man always refers everything to himself, and everyone is a tyrant in his own way.

I am pleased to see you becoming a philosopher." "How can one become a philosopher ?" "By thinking." "Must one think a long while ?" "Throughout life." "Then it is never over ?" "Never; but one improves as much as possible, and obtains the sum of happiness which one is susceptible of enjoying." "And how can that happiness be felt ?" "By all the pleasure which the philosopher can procure when he is conscious of having obtained them by his own exertions, and especially by getting rid of the many prejudices which make of the majority of men a troop of grown-up children." "What is pleasure?
What is meant by prejudices ?" "Pleasure is the actual enjoyment of our senses; it is a complete satisfaction given to all our natural and sensual appetites; and, when our worn-out senses want repose, either to have breathing time, or to recover strength, pleasure comes from the imagination, which finds enjoyment in thinking of the happiness afforded by rest.

The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones." "And you say that it is done by getting rid of prejudices?
Then tell me what prejudices are, and what must be done to get rid of them." "Your question, my dear girl, is not an easy one to answer, for moral philosophy does not know a more important one, or a more difficult one to decide; it is a lesson which lasts throughout life.