The true return to nature is the definitive return to the elements-death.

We should enjoy this summer, flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one we’ll see.

Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.

It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

What seems different in yourself; that's the rare thing you possess. The one thing that gives each of us his worth, and that's just what we try to suppress. And we claim to love life.

The great artist is one whom constraint exalts, for whom the obstacle is a springboard.

He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.