Goethe has made a remark upon the perfectability of the human mind, which is full of sagacity: It is always advancing, but in a spiral line.

Why shouldn't man be as angry about not having always been alive as about having to stop being alive?

intellect is a sin that must be atoned for by leading exactly the life of those who have none.

Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society.

Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.

[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.

The life of famous men was more glorious in antiquity; the life of obscure men is happier with the moderns.