There are many people who have the gift, or failing, of never understanding themselves. I have been unlucky enough, or perhaps fortunate enough to have received the opposite gift.
Never speak ill of yourself, your friends will always say enough on that subject.
Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool.
A woman will sometimes forgive the man who tries to seduce her, but never the man who misses an opportunity when offered.
Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance.
In a novel, the author gives the leading character intelligence and distinction. Fate goes to less trouble: mediocrities play a part in great events simply from happening to be there.
She is such a good friend that she would throw all her acquaintances into the water for the pleasure of fishing them out again.
An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public.
Regimes may fall and fail, but I do not.
The art of putting the right men in the right places is first in the science of government; but that of finding places for the discontented is the most difficult.
Nothing succeeds so well as success.
The bold defiance of a woman is the certain sign of her shame, – when she has once ceased to blush, it is because she has too much to blush for.
Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France.
Politics is the systematic cultivation of hatred.
A married man with a family will do anything for money.
A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.
I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come – in public opinion.
If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.
Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts.
In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.