A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.

The art of reading is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life from one's encounter with it in a book.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life.

[...] marriage is one thing, and love is another...You need to have a solid canvas; nobody stops you to weave the arabesques.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence.