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

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.

Modern as the style of Pascal's writing is, his thought is deeply impregnated with the spirit of the Middle Ages. He belonged, almost equally, to the future and to the past.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.

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

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