The trade of authorship is a violent, and indestructible obsession.

Heavens! whatever possesses us, here below, that we mutually torment ourselves, sourly reproach our mutual faults, and mercilessly condemn all that is not cut according to our pattern?

The publication of a book only brings very paltry results to its author.

One changes from day to day, and... after a few years have passed one has completely altered.

Writing a journal means that facing your ocean you are afraid to swim across it, so you attempt to drink it drop by drop.

The masses are still ungrateful or ignorant. They prefer murder, poisonings, and crimes generally to a literature possessed of style and feeling.

Nothing resembles selfishness more closely than self-respect