The way to become boring is to say everything.

Meslier was the most singular phenomenon ever seen among all the meteors fatal to the Christian religion.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

A small number of choice books are sufficient.

You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!

One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.

One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.