Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

The minds of different generations are as impenetrable one by the other as are the monads of Leibniz.