The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror

One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.

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.

One mustn't always believe that feeling is everything. In the arts, it is nothing without form.

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.

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

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.