Like the creatures of the forest and the sea, I love To lose myself for a while.

What a person is begins to betray itself when his talent weakens--when he stops showing what he can do. Talent, too, is ornamentation, and ornamentation, too, is a hiding place.

Human, all too human.

We talk about taking "pleasure in a thing": but in truth it is pleasure in ourselves, mediated by a thing.

Vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.