those two wholesome defects of the French people, malice and curiosity, both of which are essential to its greatness.

marriage was a calamity, but it was not an occupation.

history ... a sort of immortality turned upside down. Her life stretched backwards through ten centuries.

those two wholesome defects of the French people, malice and curiosity, both of which are essential to its greatness.

The birth of love is always accompanied by the idea of solitude. A single being appears, and the rest of the world grows empty.

The affairs of the royal house form a subject of conversation for those who, as a rule, would have no conversation.

Words express only the feelings we know already.