Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.

It was in Spain that [my generation] learned that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this, doubtless, which explains why so many, the world over, feel the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy.

One plays at being immortal and after a few weeks one doesn't even know whether or not one can hang on till the next day.

All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. That may sound simple to the point of childishness; I can't judge if it's simple, but I know it's true.

Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.

An achievement is a bondage. It obliges one to a higher achievement.

There is a life and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy between.