There are no elements so diverse that they cannot be joined in the heart of a man.

Born enemies don't fight. Nations you would say were designed to go to war against each other by their skins, their language, their smell; always jealous of each other, always hating each other; they're not the ones who fight. You will find the real antagonists in nations fate has groomed and made ready for the same war.

I remember a time when a cabbage could sell itself by being a cabbage. Nowadays it’s no good being a cabbage – unless you have an agent and pay him a commission. Nothing is free anymore to sell itself or give itself away. These days, Countess, every cabbage has its pimp.

It's odd how people waiting for you stand out far less clearly than people you are waiting for.

Countries are like fruit-the worms are always inside.

There is no better way of exercising the imagination than the study of law. No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth.

Everyone always dies for his country. If you have lived in it, well and wisely and actively, you die for it too.