In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve others better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one find the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities.

Some cry: 'Love me!!' Others: 'Don't love me!!' But a certain genus, the worst and most unhappy, cries: 'Don't love me and be faithful to me!!'

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined.

The human heart has a tiresome tendency to label as fate only what crushes it. But happiness likewise, in its way, is without reason, since it is inevitable.

Fate is not in man but around him

What did it matter if he existed for two or for twenty years? Happiness was the fact that he had existed.