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 heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.

Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.

I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.

She was as sated with him as he was tired of her. Emma had rediscovered in adultery all the banality of marriage.

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