With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin.

In sheer genius Pascal ranks among the very greatest writers who have lived upon this earth. And his genius was not simply artistic; it displayed itself no less in his character and in the quality of his thought.

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

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.

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

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

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