You French, your eyes are so quick and piercing that you worry us, you oblige us to be on the look-out, to hide things..
I feel a very strong gratitude towards your countrymen. I've been welcomed by you and amongst you as a special person
A Frenchman may possibly be clean..
They have the earthhunger, or preference for property in land, which is said to mark the Teutonic nations.
As compared with the Americans, I think (the English are) cheerful and contented. Young people in this country are much more prone to melancholy.
If anatomy is reformed according to national tendencies, I suppose, the spleen will hereafter be found in the Englishman, not found in the American, and differencing the one from the other.
(the English are) tender-hearted, herein differing from Rome and the Latin nations.
Compare the tone of the French and of the English press: the first querulous, captious, sensitive about English opinion..
Cheerful, gesticulating volubility is a Mediterannean rather than a French trait
an Englishman is arrogant but he doesn't know it
a Frenchman is arrogant and he knows it
The American system is more democratic, more humane
the Germans, those semi-Greeks, who love analogy, and, by means of their height of view, preserve their enthusiasm, and think for Europe.
The Germans generalize
the male principle is the Saxon; the female, the Latin; and they are combined in every discourse. ..The union of Saxon precision and Oriental soaring..
that uncalculated headlong expenditure which families use in America
it is a land where each individual acts as if he were king of his own world.
the average Frenchwoman .. has an inborn interest in and respect for fashion
Only occasionally has France excelled in classical music
this uncertain, unstable and contradictory people.
They are a nation of civilized hedonists, lovers of food and drink, and romance.
The country has not generally excelled in world class competitions.
Americans accomplish their tasks, and express their thoughts and emotions with what resembles the regularity of a machine, as if on a production line.
no dawdlers or dreamers
long theories expounded by students with gay and candid eyes, and with ruby complexions, overflowing with a wholesome vigour.
WE are always amazed at the intense and personal hatred that people here bear to anyone connected with taxation
when there is as much SOUR as SWEET in a compliment, an Englishman is eternally at a loss within himself, whether to take it, or let it alone: a Frenchman never is ..
when there is as much SOUR as SWEET in a compliment, an Englishman is eternally at a loss within himself, whether to take it, or let it alone: a Frenchman never is ..
There was no such thing as a man's asking her directly; - the thing was impossible. .. A little French debonnaire captain, who came dancing down the street, showed me it was the easiest thing in the world.
There was no such thing as a man's asking her directly; - the thing was impossible. .. A little French debonnaire captain, showed me it was the easiest thing in the world
what a want of knowledge in [love] a man betrays, whoever lets the word come out of his lips, till an hour or two, at least, after the time that his silence upon it becomes tormenting.
There wants nothing, said I, to make it so but the comic use which the gallantry of a Frenchman would put it to, - to make love the first moment, and an offer of his person the second.
a Frenchman, whatever be his talents, has no sort of prudery in showing them
All that can be said against the French sublime, in this instance of it, is this: - That the grandeur is MORE in the WORD, and LESS in the THING
But in Paris, as none kiss each other but the men, - I did, what amounted to the same thing - - I bid God bless her.
by jingling and rubbing one against another for seventy years together in one body's pocket or another's, they are become so much alike, you can scarce distinguish one shilling from another.
There are three epochas in the empire of a French woman. - She is coquette, then deist, then devote
that distinct variety and originality of character, which distinguishes them, not only from each other, but from all the world besides.
..the execrable auberges of this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition
I know no country in which strangers are worse treated with respect to their essential concerns.
he composed the requete in my name, which was very pompous, very tedious, and very abject.
The noblesse are vain, proud, poor, and slothful.
.. there is no such thing as a carpet to be seen, and the floors are in a very dirty condition. They have not even the implements of cleanliness in this country.
they are utter strangers to what we call common decency; and I could give you some high-flavoured instances, at which even a native of Edinburgh would stop his nose.
all the French who were present ate of every dish that appeared; and I am told, that if there had been an hundred articles more, they would have had a trial of each
they are really persuaded, that theirs is the richest, the bravest, the happiest, and the most powerful nation under the sun;
The character of a devotee, which is hardly known in England, is very common here.
That vanity which characterises the French extends even to the canaille
they are mostly in the French taste, which is quite contrary to the simplicity of the ancients.
It is a very odd contrast between France and England; in the former all the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter there is hardly any complaisance but among the publicans. ..
The same spirit of idleness and dissipation I have observed in every part of France, and among every class of people.
The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this appears in nothing more than in the article of dress.
the most reputable shop-keepers and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise the most shameful imposition
you seldom meet with a native of France, whether male or female, who is not a compleat gamester, well versed in all the subtleties and finesses of the art.
I have a hearty contempt for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which characterise the generality,
the French are by no means deficient in natural capacity; but they are at the same time remarkable for a natural levity, which hinders their youth from cultivating that capacity
I think it an art that necessarily implies a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of sentiment. These are qualities, of which.. a Frenchman has no idea;
A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the females from his infancy.. becomes acquainted with all their customs and humours
Let you be ever so ill, or averse to company, he forces himself at all times into your bed-chamber, and if it is necessary to give him a peremptory refusal, he is affronted.
As a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a conquest of a female's heart, than he exposes her character, for the gratification of his vanity.
If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes for your civilities is to make love to your wife
Your French friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he stuns you with his loquacity: he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and private affairs
A Frenchman will sooner part with his religion than with his hair, which, indeed, no consideration will induce him to forego.
A French friend tires out your patience with long visits
I respect the French officers, in particular, for their gallantry and valour; and especially for that generous humanity which they exercise towards their enemies..
A Frenchman lays out his whole revenue upon tawdry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes..
the pride or ostentation of the Italians in general takes a more laudable turn than that of other nations
an Englishman expects to see a number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable negligence..
of all the people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously rapacious.
..his master had travelled three days in company with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and in all that time he never spoke a word to either..
The French, as well as other foreigners, have no idea of a man of family and fashion, without the title of duke, count, marquis, or lord..
...subtlety is prized above all, face-to-face confrontation is avoided
Japanese language has entirely different set of written characters to express foreign words and names, making them immediately recognizable as foreign
Japan feels at odds with foreign things and people, whereas China embraces them with easy condescension
Americans are more direct about expressing themselves in person
Most Italians, it often seems to me, try to make life as complicated as possible
Americans do tend to be more informal than people from other countries…. .. However, there are situations and environments in which formality is the norm.
It is not polite to burp in public or to slurp your soup.
the great continental tradition of the philosophical aphorism and gnomic utterance..
the arid language games of the Anglo-American tradition
The French do not organize meetings to reach a decision, do not like clear procedures,are more flexible and creative, Only written commitments are serious.
the humour is clever and intelligent
all groups mentioned politeness as a key British trait
It’s especially among men, both physical – no hugging – but also just the reluctance I think to express preference or emotion in normal discourse…
..in the Arabic world, the family is a unit. Here, the individual is a unit