The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.

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

Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness.

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 French are the wittiest, the most charming, and up to the present, at all events, the least musical race on Earth.

Friendship has its illusions no less than love.

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