Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

In the literature of France Moliere occupies the same kind of position as Cervantes in that of Spain, Dante in that of Italy, and Shakespeare in that of England. His glory is more than national - it is universal.

The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.

Though, with the ascendancy of Louis, the political power of the nobles finally came to an end, France remained, in the whole complexion of her social life, completely aristocratic.

During this earlier period of his activity Voltaire seems to have been trying - half unconsciously, perhaps - to discover and to express the fundamental quality of his genius.

The amateur is very rare in French literature - as rare as he is common in our own.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.