Between truth and the search for it, I choose the second.

The Renaissance had resulted in the emancipation of the individual, in making him feel that the universe had no other purpose than his happiness. This brought an entirely new answer to the question, 'Why should I do this or that?' It used to be, 'Because self-instituted authority command you.' The answer now was, 'Because it is good for men.' In this lies our greatest debt to the Renaissance, that it instituted the welfare of men as the end of all action.

You can parody and make fun of almost anything, but that does not turn the universe into a caricature.

Literature in its most comprehensive sense is the autobiography of humanity.

When everything else physical and mental seems to diminish, the appreciation of beauty is on the increase.

[Describing his house:] It is a library with living rooms attached.

There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learnt to separate them.