Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society.

I do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.

[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach.

inventiveness is childish, practice sublime.

Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?

I desire no other proof of Christianity than the Lord's Prayer.

When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.