The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free is the task.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.

He who makes great demands upon himself is naturally inclined to make great demands on others.

Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.

Great minds tend toward banality. It is the noblest effort of individualism. But it implies a sort of modesty, which is so rare that it is scarcely found except in the greatest, or in beggars.

The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.