The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Memory is a great artist. For every man and for every woman it makes the recollection of his or her life a work of art and an unfaithful record.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises.

Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.

There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.