If this is dying, I don't think much of it.

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

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

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

But Racine's extraordinary powers as a writer become still more obvious when we consider that besides being a great poet he is also a great psychologist.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

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.