Accept life, take it as it is? Stupid. The means of doing otherwise? Far from our having to take it, it is life that possesses us and on occasion shuts our mouths.

The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence, and by reason of their very duration great misfortunes are monotonous.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

There is no shame in preferring happiness.

Men cry because things are not what they ought to be.

To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules