In women's destiny everything goes downhill except for thought, whose immortal nature it is to keep constantly rising.

[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.

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.

If one hour's work is enough to govern France, four minutes is all that is needed for Italy. There is no nation more easily frightened; even its poetic imagination predisposes it to fear, and they look upon power as on an image that fills them with terror.

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.

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.

Self-love, so sensitive in its own cause, has rarely any sympathy to spare for others.