Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the other curses of a refined nature. Above all, it should never ask for leave where there is a right of way.

. . . life is sometimes life and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish t'other from which . . .

Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural. We move between two darkness's.

Do you remember Italy?

It comes to this then: there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they have been persecuted.

A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it entirely.

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.