How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and ever ascend to heaven!

Inability, human incapacity, is the only boundary to an art.

She might have liked to try to strangle him with those slender fingers of hers, but she wanted to make a job of it and this great patience with which she waited for her claws to grow was in itself a form of enjoyment.

How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and ever ascend to heaven!

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

The only basis for living is believing in life, loving it, and applying the whole force of one's intellect to know it better.

These young people naturally grow up with ideas different from ours, for they are born for times when we shall no longer be here