The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

Write, write, write-till your fingers break.

Not everyone knows how to be silent or to leave in good time. It happens that even people of good breeding fail to notice that their presence provokes in the weary or preoccupied host a feeling akin to hatred, and that this feeling is tensely concealed and covered up with lies.

What must human beings be, to destroy what they can never create?

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

My holy of holies is the human body.