I am every day more convinced that we women, if we are to be good women, feminine and amiable and domestic, are not fitted to reign; at least it is they that drive themselves to the work which it entails.

An ugly baby is a very nasty object - and the prettiest is frightful.

We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist.

I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and turmoil. We women are not made for governing, and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations.

[On alcohol:] Total abstinence is an impossibility and ... it will not do to insist on it as a general practice.

I positively think that ladies who are always enceinte quite disgusting; it is more like a rabbit or guinea-pig than anything else and really it is not very nice.

We will not have failure - only success and new learning.