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

A writer’s promise is like a tiger’s smile

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.

Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work.

When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved.

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

How far the existence of the Academy has influenced French literature, either for good or for evil, is an extremely dubious question.