To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck that one encounters only too rarely.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

I believe in the incomprehensibility of God.

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.

Old men are prone to invest the futures of young men with their own past sorrows.

For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation; for most young men, it is a woman; for some women, it is a man; and for others it may be a salon, a coterie, a part of town or a whole city.

Loyalty in time of need is possibly one of the noblest of victories a courtier can win over himself.