Conversationis like the table of contents of a dull book.... All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayedin it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance.

Far less envy in America than in France.

It is the nobility of their style which will make our writers of 1840 unreadable forty years from now.

A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.

I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction," said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought.

Chélan had acted as imprudently for Julien as he had for himself. He had given him the habit of reasoning correctly, and of not being put off by empty words, but he had neglected to tell him that this habit was a crime in the person of no importance, since every piece of logical reasoning is offensive.

In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.