All the time that he can spare from the adornment of his person, he devotes to the neglect of his duties.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

If you had the power to destroy the world, would you do so?

We may often do as we please - but we cannot please as we please.

Abstract work, if one wishes to do it well, must be allowed to destroy one's humanity; one raises a monument which is at the same time a tomb, in which, voluntarily, one slowly inters oneself.

Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe.

Love is a slippery eel that bites like hell