history ... a sort of immortality turned upside down. Her life stretched backwards through ten centuries.

marriage was a calamity, but it was not an occupation.

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!

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

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

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

collections are amusing only in the making; afterwards they are like sporting prints without the sport. The sons of collectors inherit only the corpse of their fathers' satisfied passion.