The dream, alone, is of interest. What is life without a dream?

To joke in the face of danger is the supreme politeness, a delicate refusal to cast oneself as a tragic hero.

All my laurels you have riven away, and my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me... One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom mine own! And that is... my white plume.

To offend is my pleasure; I love to be hated.

A man does not fight to win; it is better to fight in vain.

I sing, not to hear the echo repeat, a shade fainter, my song! I think of light and not of glory! Singing is my fashion of waging war and bearing witness. And if my song is the proudest of songs, it is that I sing clearly to make the day rise clear!

It is at night that faith in light is admirable.