To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.

I have tipped waiters, and I have been tipped by waiters.

He would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.