Both ardent lovers and austere scholars, when once they come to the years of discretion, love cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household, who like them are sensitive to the cold, and sedentary.

Where one should see only what is beautiful, our public looks only for what is true.

Nations, like families, have great men only in spite of themselves.

Always be drunk ... Get drunk militantly. Just get drunk.

The son will run away from the family not at eighteen but at twelve, emancipated by his gluttonous precocity; he will fly not to seek heroic adventures, not to deliver a beautiful prisoner from a tower, not to immortalize a garret with sublime thoughts, but to found a business, to enrich himself and to compete with his infamous papa.

A multitude of small delights constitute happiness

One must work, if not from inclination, at least out of despair — since it proves, on close examination, that work is less boring than amusing oneself.