Mediocrity cherishes rules; as for me, I hate them; I feel for them and for every restriction, corporation, caste, hierarchy, level, herd, a loathing which fills my soul, and it is in this respect perhaps that I understand martyrdom.

One never tires of what is well written, style is life! It is the very blood of thought!

What is glory? It is to have a lot of nonsense talked about you.

I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.

The future is the worst thing about the present.

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.

Melancholy is a sensual pleasure that is deliberately provoked. How many people shut themselves away to make themselves sadder, or to weep beside a stream, or choose a sentimental book! We are constantly building and unbuilding ourselves.