The easier the life, the more irksome such occupations are,--unless, indeed, one belongs to the sect of shaking quakers or to the honorable guild of carpenters or taxidermists.

If one really had, like the owners of estates, to live in the country, it would be well to supply one's self with a geological, mineralogical, entomological, or botanical hobby; but a sensible man doesn't give himself a vice merely to kill time for a fortnight.

The noblest estate, and the finest chateaux soon pall on those who possess nothing but the sight of them.

The beauties of nature seem rather squalid compared to the representation of them at the opera.

Paris, by retrospection, shines from all its facets.