A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.

I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.

The concern that some women show at the absence of their husbands, does not arise from their not seeing them and being with them, but from their apprehension that their husbands are enjoying pleasures in which they do not participate, and which, from their being at a distance, they have not the power of interrupting.

The shortest way to arrive at glory would be to do that for conscience which we do for glory.

The most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to keep itself upright from being overthrown by its own weakness.