The arts are good and providential in that they allow the soul to imitate the movements of love, and to feel love without its being returned - which, perhaps, is the only way of feeling it permanently.

... love always betrays its intentions.

those two wholesome defects of the French people, malice and curiosity, both of which are essential to its greatness.

Children never grow tired; their likes and dislikes are constant; let them laugh at something once and they laugh always; do what you will, they are sure to say, 'Do it again!

The affairs of the royal house form a subject of conversation for those who, as a rule, would have no conversation.

The arts are good and providential in that they allow the soul to imitate the movements of love, and to feel love without its being returned - which, perhaps, is the only way of feeling it permanently.

The birth of love is always accompanied by the idea of solitude. A single being appears, and the rest of the world grows empty.