...the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

Posting a letter and getting married [sic] are among the few things left that are entirely romantic; for to be entirely romantic, a thing must be irrevocable

If you attempt an actual argument with a modern paper of opposite politics, you will have no answer except slanging or silence.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

It is one thing to describe an interview with a gorgon or a griffin, a creature who does not exist. It is another thing to discover that the rhinoceros does exist and then take pleasure in the fact that he looks as if he didn't.

Truths turn into dogmas the minute they are disputed.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.