I only study the things I like; I apply my mind only to matters that interest me. They'll be useful-or useless-to me or to others in due course, I'll be given-or not given-the opportunity of benefiting from what I've learned. In any case, I'll have enjoyed the inestimable advantage of doing things I like doing and following my own inclinations.

Your intelligence often bears the same relation to your heart as the library of a chateau does to its owner.

Almost the whole of history is but a sequence of horrors.

Satire is the disease of art.

Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.

In the library of the world men have hitherto been ranged according to the form, and the binding; the time is coming when they will take rank and order according to their contents and intrinsic merits.

She commands who is blest with indifference.