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.

I am glad that I am not a man, for then I should have to marry a woman.

Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.

[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.

Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.

Intellect does not attain its full force unless it attacks power.

Love is admiring with the heart. And admiring is loving with the mind.