Honore de Balzac

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.

I would not like to see a person who is sober, moderate, chaste and just say that there is no God. They would speak disinterestedly at least, but such a person is not to be found.

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what is in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with.