There are moments when a rope's end, a pole, the branch of the tree, is life itself, and it is a frightful thing to see a living being lose his hold upon it, and fall like a ripe fruit.

A man without a woman is like a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman who makes the man go off.

Now, one cannot read nonsense with impunity.

There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.

Kings are for nations in their swaddling-clothes: France has attained her majority.

His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one's own.

I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity.