Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.

A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.

Only three things are infinite. The sky in its stars, the sea in its drops of water, and the heart in its tears.

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.

What stops me from taking myself seriously, even though I am essentially a serious person, is that I find myself extremely ridiculous, not in the sense of the small-scale ridiculousness of slap-stick comedy, but rather in the sense of ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and that manifests itself in the simplest actions and the most extraordinary gestures.

Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling.