He always seemed to women different from what he was, and they loved in him not himself, but the man created by their imagination, whom they had been eagerly seeking all their lives; and afterwards, when they noticed their mistake, they loved him all the same.

One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.

One usually dislikes a play while writing it, but afterward it grows on one. Let others judge and make decisions.

A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples' character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe. ... What a terrible future!

I have no will of my own. Never did. Limp and lily-livered, I always obey - is it possible that's attractive to women?

There ought to be a man with a hammer behind the door of every happy man.

To harbor spiteful feelings against ordinary people for not being heroes is possible only for narrow-minded or embittered man.