Women bestow on friendship only what they borrow from love.

Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.

A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers.

The best philosophical attitude to adopt towards the world is a union of the sarcasm of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.

Education must have two foundations --morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defense for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.

Bachelors' wives and old maids' children are always perfect.

Life is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours; it is a palliation; death is the remedy.