Half of the people in the world are below average.

Fashion condemns us to many follies, the greatest is to make oneself its slave.

Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.

Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude, of man.

Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.

The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.

I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.