She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.

There's only one passion in most artists more violent than their desire for admiration: their fear of identifying the nature of such admiration as they do receive.

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.

It is too early to feel fear of the future when one is under 30, and too late after that. What I mean is that one must never allow fear to become one's permanent sense of life. The important thing is to prepare yourself intellectually to deal with whatever circumstances you may encounter, which requires that you define your values fully, clearly and rationally -- and never betray them.

Don't bother to examine a folly-ask yourself only what it accomplishes.

Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration.