Only the ephemeral is of lasting value.

If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art.

To become conscious of what is horrifying and to laugh at it is to become master of that which is horrifying

The Arts are man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.

Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.

The supreme trick of mass insanity is that it persuades you that the only abnormal person is the one who refuses to join in the madness of others, the one who tries vainly to resist. We will never understand totalitarianism if we do not understand that people rarely have the strength to be uncommon.

When silence confronts us, the question to which there is no answer rings out in the silence. That ultimate "why," that great "why" is like a light that blots out everything, but a blinding light; nothing more can be made out.