When there is an old maid in the house, a watchdog is unnecessary.

A country is strong which consists of wealthy families, every member of whom is interested in defending a common treasure; it is weak when composed of scattered individuals, to whom it matters little whether they obey seven or one, a Russian or a Corsican, so long as each keeps his own plot of land, blind in their wretched egotism, to the fact that the day is coming when this too will be torn from them.

Glory is a poison, good to be taken in small doses.

Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most audacious of enterprises; the battle is not slow to start, and victory, that is to say freedom, goes to the cleverest.

But woman brings disorder into society through passion.

Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society.

Neither the passions not justice nor politics nor the great social forces ever consider the victims they strike.