When sometimes, behind his back, they called him a tyrant, he merely smiled and uttered this profound observation: If some day I turn liberal, they will say I have let them down.

They talked so, with secret hearts, without needing words, talking of other things... They could have suddenly continued their confessions aloud, without ceasing to understand each other.

The vague torment of ... ambition.

Man's highest duty is to protect animals from cruelty.

Blow the candle out, I don't need to see what my thoughts look like.

The word realist means nothing to me, because I would subordinate reality to temperament. Give me what is true and I applaud; but give me what is individual and alive and I applaud even more.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.