It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.

The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.

Books and marriage go ill together.

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

Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two.

People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.

Perfect reason flees all extremity, and leads one to be wise with sobriety.

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

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

As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.

Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

I have the knack of easing scruples.

I live on good soup, not on fine words.

I want to be distinguished from the rest; to tell the truth, a friend to all mankind is not a friend for me.

If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well.

It is a fine seasoning for joy to think of those we love.

It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.