Books for all the world are always foul-smelling books: the smell of small people clings to them.

We labour at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think. Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.

Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.

One who is always deeply involved in what he is doing is above all embarrassment.

He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.

Every word has its fragrance: there is a harmony and a disharmony of fragrances, and hence of words.

Heroism--that is the disposition of a man who aspires to a goal compared to which he himself is wholly insignificant. Heroism is the good will to self-destruction.