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.

What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

One should want only one thing and want it constantly. Then one is sure of getting it. But I desire everything, and consequently get nothing.

Long only for what you have.

But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.

Though a revolution may call itself "national," it always marks the victory of a single party.

No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.