“You never see the old austerity That was the essence of civility; Young people hereabouts, unbridled, now Just want.”

All the satires of the stage should be viewed without discomfort. They are public mirrors, where we are never to admit that we see ourselves; one admits to a fault when one is scandalized by its censure.

One easily bears moral reproof, but never mockery.

The secret to fencing consists in two things: to give and to not receive.

It is a folly second to none; to try to improve the world.

Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

There’s a sort of decency among the dead, a remarkable discretion: you never find them making any complaint against the doctor who killed them!

Frankly, it’s good enough to lock up in a drawer.

To inspire love is a woman’s greatest ambition, believe me. It’s the one thing woman care about and there’s no woman so proud that she does not rejoice at heart in her conquests.

Ah! how annoying that the law doesn’t allow a woman to change husbands just as one does shirts.

There’s nothing quite like tobacco: it’s the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn’t deserve to live.

But it is not reason that governs love.

We always speak well when we manage to be understood.

I hate all men, the ones because they are mean and vicious, and the others for being complaisant with the vicious ones.

Everyone has a right to his own course of action.

All extremes does perfect reason flee, And wishes to be wise quite soberly.