I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way.

The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love give. I am man before being a prince, and when I have the good fortune to be in love, my mistress addresses a man and not a prince.

Wounded pride can take a rich young man far who is surrounded by flatterers since birth.

Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.

People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of anextreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.

The Russians imitate French ways, but always at a distance of fifty years.