When Louis XIV assumed the reins of government France suddenly and wonderfully came to her maturity; it was as if the whole nation had burst into splendid flower.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

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.

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.

There are a great deal of a great many kinds of love.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.