A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.

Virtue has needs of limits.

The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.

Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.

Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.