Cultivated people should be superior to any consideration so sordid as a mercenary interest.

Esteem must be founded on some sort of preference. Bestow it on everybody and it ceases to have any meaning at all.

There's nothing people can't contrive to praise or condemn and find justification for doing so, according to their age and their inclinations.

Outside of Paris, there is no hope for the cultured.

I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.

It is fine for a woman to know a lot; but I don't want her to have this shocking desire to be learned for learnedness sake. When I ask a woman a question, I like her to pretend to ignore what she really knows.

You only die once, but you will be dead for a very long time.