The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.

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.

On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters.

The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.

I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.

Tout ce qu'on invente est vrai, soi-en sure. La poesie est une chose aussi precise que la geometrie.

They took each other's advice, opened one book, went over to another, then did not know what to decide when opinions diverged so widely.