The main engagement of the writer is towards truthfulness; therefore he must keep his mind and his judgment free.

Curiosity ran unchecked through him, like the wind outside through the deserted streets, along the canal, around the little wooden houses, everywhere, as far as the mountain.

Ideas often last but a day; feelings, dreams almost forever.

it's a funny life. Either you don't make a red cent and you have all the time in the world, or else you get double the money and you don't have a moment to spend a penny of it.

Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?

One knows less about one's own destiny than about anything else on earth.

poverty is like a pain, dormant and unbearable as long as you don't move about too much. You grow used to it, you end up by paying no attention to it. But once you presume to bring it out in the daylight, it becomes terrifying, you see it at last in all its squalor and you shrink from exposing it to the sun.