The most beautiful landscapes in the world, if they evoke no memory, if they bear no trace of a remarkable event, are uninteresting compared to historic landscapes.

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.

... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.

The mind's pleasures are made to calm the tempests of the heart.

The egotism of woman is always for two.

[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.

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.