To associate with other like-minded people in small, purposeful groups is for the great majority of men and women a source of profound psychological satisfaction. Exclusiveness will add to the pleasure of being several, but at one; and secrecy will intensify it almost to ecstasy.

Chastity - the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.

In spiritual matters, knowledge is dependent upon being; as we are, so we know.

The proper study of mankind is books.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

But then people don't read literature in order to understand; they read it because they want to re-live the feelings and sensations which they found exciting in the past. Art can be a lot of things; but in actual practice, most of it is merely the mental equivalent of alcohol and cantharides.

It isn't a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past.