A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

The youth who follows his appetites too soon seizes the cup, before it has received its best ingredients, and by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining parts of life of their share, so that his eagerness only produces manhood of imbecility and an age of pain.

We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities contract not only an effeminacy of habit, but of thinking.

Death when unmasked shows us a friendly face and is a terror only at a distance.

Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madam Blaize, Who never wanted a good word From those who spoke her praise.

There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great.