They establish distinctions and reserves which I cannot apply to myself, for I exist only as a whole; my only claim is to be natural, and the pleasure I feel in an action, I take as a sign that I ought to do it.

We live counterfeit lives in order to resemble the idea we first had of ourselves.

The most beaten paths are certainly the surest, but do not hope to start much game on them.

If one could recover the uncompromising spirit of one's youth, one's greatest indignation would be for what one has become.

The belief that becomes truth for me... is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action.

In other people's company I felt I was dull, gloomy, unwelcome, at once bored and boring.

Obsessions of the Orient, of the desert, of its ardor and its emptiness, of the shadows of palm gardens, of the garments white and wide - obsessions where the senses go berserk, where nerves are exasperated, and which made me, at the onset of each night, believe sleep impossible.