Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.

One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.

One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.

Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.

It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return.

There are three thing in the world I love most: the sea, Hamlet, and Don Giovanni.

The most important quality of art and its aim is illusion; emotion, which is often obtained by certain sacrifices of poetic detail, is something else entirely and of an inferior order.