When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved.

The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.

Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

It is probably always disastrous not to be a poet.

Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

Englishmen have always loved Moliere.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

Self under self, a pile of selves I standThreaded on time, and with metaphysic handLift the farm like a lid and seeFarm within farm, and in the centre, me.

Good leaders make heroes of others.

I am only an average man but by George I work harder at it than the average man.

I've worn dresses from all different price ranges, and the thing that couture dresses have in common is that the fit is amazing.

World belongs to humanity, not this leader, that leader or that king or prince or religious leader. World belongs to humanity.

Who is ever adequate? We all create situations each other can't live up to, then break our hearts at them because they don't.

I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances.

If French is no longer the language of a power, it can be the language of a counter power.

Men are not the causers of history. History itself, by a pressure of events, causes men to resort to particular actions.

Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.