All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vien...na M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If your little savage were left to himself and be allowed to retain all his ignorance, he would in time join the infant's reasonin...g to the grown man's passion, he would strangle his father and sleep with his mother.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a... kind of respect for the great criminal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What a hell of an economic system! Some are replete with everything while others, whose stomachs are no less demanding, whose hung...er is just as recurrent, have nothing to bite on. The worst of it is the constrained posture need puts you in. The needy man does not walk like the rest; he skips, slithers, twists, crawls.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The moment one accosts a stranger or is accosted by him is above all in this life the moment of drama.... Whoever we meet watches ...us intently at the quick, strange moment of meeting, to see whether we are disposed to be friendly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »