In the past the French came to Germany less with the desire to understand it than with a zealous desire to interpret, to analyze it dispassionately something for which their training at the Ecole Normale Superieure or the Ecole des Hautes Etudes and the French language superbly equipped them to do.

Everything ends this way in France-everything. Weddings, christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs-everything is a pretext for a good dinner.

Political thought in France is either nostalgic or Utopian.

How can you be expected to govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six kinds of cheese?

There's a French story that tells how God created the world, and there was no place perfect on it, so he created France. And then he looked at it and said, "This is too good for humanity," so he created Frenchmen to live in it.

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.

Who can help loving the land that has taught us Six hundred and eighty-five ways to dress eggs?

The French, for example, are a contemptible nation.

The French complain of everything, and always.

The French are highly individualistic and ungovernable and the extraordinary thing is that, although they project great leaders about once a century, those leaders rule effectively but bequeath chaos.