It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more profound meanings for the critic, but at second-hand they can be of small service to you.

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

I don't think that women ought to sit down at table with men. It ruins conversation and I'm sure it's very bad for them. It puts ideas in their heads, and women are never at ease with themselves when they have ideas.

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.

A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.