People who have been made to suffer by certain things cannot be reminded of them without a horror which paralyses every other pleasure, even that to be found in reading a story.

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

At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness.

Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one.

Far less envy in America than in France.

The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.