Man is not made to understand life, but to live it.

Man has an inexhuastible faculty for lying, especially to himself.

To turn events into ideas is the function of literature.

Lovely promise and quick ruin are seen nowhere better than in Gothic architecture.

To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

The lover knows much more about absolute good and universal beauty than any logician or theologian, unless the latter, too, be lovers in disguise.

Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited.