The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America.

A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.

They were completely vague. They expressed everything and nothing. 'It is the Æolian harp of style,' thought Julien. 'Amid the most lofty thoughts about annihilation, death, the infinite, etc., I can see no reality save a shocking fear of ridicule.

The ordinary procedure of the nineteenth century is that when a powerful and noble personage encounters a man of feeling, he kills, exiles, imprisons or so humiliates him that the other, like a fool, dies of grief.

Some people respect some people only because some people respect them.

Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.