Genius is simply childhood, rediscovered by an act of will.

I set out to discover the why of it, and to transform my pleasure into knowledge.

For me, Romanticism is the most recent and the most current expression of beauty.

Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This transitory fugitive element, which is constantly changing, must not be despised or neglected.

Nothing can be done except little by little.

The immense profundity of thought in vulgar locutions, like holes dug by generations of ants.

I have to confess that I had gambled on my soul and lost it with heroic insouciance and lightness of touch. The soul is so impalpable, so often useless, and sometimes such a nuisance, that I felt no more emotion on losing it than if, on a stroll, I had mislaid my visiting card.