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

Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work.

Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.

Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance.

I'm absolutely removed from the world at such times...The hours go by without my knowing it. Sitting there I'm wandering in countries I can see every detail of - I'm playing a role in the story I'm reading. I actually feel I'm the characters - I live and breath with them.

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

Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.