A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.

Alas! Man's vices, horrible as they are supposed to be, contain the positive proof of his taste for the infinite.

Blessed art Thou, Lord, who giveth suffering As a divine remedy for our impurities.

Our religion is itself profoundly sad - a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man's own language - so long as he knows anguish and is a painter.

Oh, Creator! Can monsters exist in the sight of him who alone knows how they were invented, how they invented themselves, and how they might not have invented themselves?

There exist certain individuals who are, by nature, given purely to contemplation and are utterly unsuited to action, and who, nevertheless, under a mysterious and unknown impulse, sometimes act with a speed which they themselves would have thought beyond them.

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.