I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.

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.

The itch is a mean, unconfessable, ridiculous malady; one can pity someone who is suffering ; someone who wants to scratch himself makes one laugh.

Too chaste a youth leads to a dissolute old age.

Atheism. There is not a single exalting and emancipating influence that does not in turn become inhibitory.

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

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.