Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they invented when they got tired of all the others.

What seems beautiful to me, what I should like to write, is a book about nothing, a book dependent on nothing external, which would be held together by the strength of its style, just as the earth, suspended in the void, depends on nothing external for its support.

Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.

One mustn't look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.

I go from exasperation to a state of collapse, then I recover and go from prostration to Fury, so that my average state is one of being annoyed.

And so I will take back up my poor life, so plain and so tranquil, where phrases are adventures and the only flowers I gather aremetaphors.

Casting aspersions on those we love always does something to loosen our ties. We shouldn't maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.