Whatever people may say, the fastidious formal manner of the upper classes is preferable to the slovenly easygoing behaviour of the common middle class. In moments of crisis, the former know how to act, the latter become uncouth brutes.

Literature is a defense against the attacks of life. It says to life: You can't deceive me. I know your habits, foresee and enjoy watching all your reactions, and steal your secret by involving you in cunning obstructions that halt your normal flow.

A work settles nothing, just as the labor of a whole generation settles nothing. Sons, and the morrow, always start afresh.

The slowness of time, for a man who knows nothing will happen, is brutal.

The only joy in the world is to begin.

One must look for one thing only, to find many.

The only joy in the world is to begin. It is good to be alive because living is beginning, always, every moment.