My life is a struggle.

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals.

Les personnages de nos autres vies sont des fantômes que la littérature fait revivre.

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.

The best is the enemy of the good.

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man’s power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.

Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.

Society is composed of two great classes those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.

Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live.

One can’t relive one’s life. Forgiveness is not what’s difficult; one’s always too ready to forgive. And it does no good, that’s obvious.

Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female – whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man! because you...

Tears are the silent language of grief.

Laughter is regional: a smile extends over the whole face.

The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.

In the summertime, we do a lot of video work. With that, I can show them if their head is moving too far or if the ball position or alignment isn’t right.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

Everything is for the best in this best of possible worlds.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Speech happens to not be his language.

Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.

The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Nature has always had more force than education.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.

With two thousand years of Christianity behind him… a man can’t see a regiment of soldiers march past without going off the deep end. It starts off far too many ideas in his head.

The word love has by no means the same sense for both sexes, and this is one cause of the serious misunderstandings that divide them.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

The flower is a jumble of thighs, the sun’s harem – the most oriental thing imaginable.

Conviction is the conscience of the mind.