For him the universe did not extend beyond the circumference of her petticoat.

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.

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts.

The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.

It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.