It's catastrophies which turn wise and strong people into philosophers.

Nothing is unimportant to a man plunged in despair. He is as credulous as a criminal sentenced to death who listens to a lunatic raving to him about how he can escape through the keyhole.

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.

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

Poles offer a mobility like that of the wind that blows over the immense plains and marches of Poland. Show a Pole a precipice, and he will leap headlong over it.

A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.

Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never really be elegant.