The most important thing in the world is to hold your soul aloft.

If you participate in life, you don’t see it clearly: you suffer from it too much or enjoy it too much. The artist, to my way of thinking, is a monstrosity, something outside nature. All the misfortunes Providence inflicts on him come from his stubborness in denying that maxim.

Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.

The future is the worst thing about the present.

I know nothing more noble than the contemplation of the world.

Madame Aubain's servant Felicite was the envy of the ladies of Pont-l'Eveque for half a century.

Art is nothing without form.