The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.

What we call strategy is mainly just crossing rivers on bridges and passing mountains though cols.

I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.

The Future is hidden even from those who are forging it.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.

The duty of literature is to note what counts, and to light up what is suited to the light. If it ceases to choose and to love, it becomes like a woman who gives herself without preference.