I do not understand how an aristocracy can exist, unless it be distinguished by some quality which no other class of the community possesses.

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments' plans.

I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

All Paradise opens! Let me die eating ortolans to the sound of soft music!

Why should one say that the machine does not live? It breathes, for its breath forms the atmosphere of some towns.

Conservatism... offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

Be thine own privy counsellor.