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.

Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.

Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.

He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.

He loved the extensive vaults where you could hear the night birds and the sea breeze; he loved the craggy ruins bound together by ivy, those dark halls, and any appearance of death and destruction. Having fallen so far from so high a position, he loved anything that had also fallen from a great height

He was bored now when Emma suddenly began to sob on his breast; and his heart, like the people who can only stand a certain amount of music, became drowsy through indifference to the vibrations of a love whose subtleties he could no longer distinguish.

It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.