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.

If it were not for respect for human opinions, I would not open my window to see the Bay of Naples for the first time, whilst I would go five hundred leagues to talk with a man of genius whom I had not seen.

There is no second country for an Englishman, except a ship and the sea.

Providence protects us in all the details of our lot.

What is love, if it can calculate and provide against its own decay?

Morality must guide calculation, and calculation must guide politics.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.