I do not portray the thing in itself. I portray the passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as the people put it, from seven years to seven years, but from day to day, from minute to minute.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.

It's not victory if it doesn't end the war.

When we have got it, we want something else.

God defend me from myself.

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.