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.

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.

Nature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence.

There is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.

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.

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

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