The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.

Conversation as talent exists only in France. In other countries, conversation provides politeness, discussion, and friendship; in France, it is an art for which imagination and soul are certainly very welcome, but which can also provide its own secret remedies to compensate you for the absence of either or both, if you so desire.

nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.

Exile: A tomb in which you can get mail.

Men do not change; they unmask themselves.

Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?

[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.