[To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.

Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination.

We always cut our poetical theories to suit our talent.

[The Germans] so easily confuse obstinacy with energy, and rudeness with firmness.

Every time a new nation, America or Russia for instance, advances toward civilization, the human race perfects itself; every time an inferior class emerges from enslavement and degradation, the human race again perfects itself.

in Italy, almost at every step, history and poetry add to the graces of nature, sweeten the memory of the past, and seem to preserve it in eternal youth.

The pursuit of politics is religion, morality, and poetry all in one.