I like prostitution. My heart has never failed to pound at the sight of one of those provocatively dressed women walking in the rain under the gaslamps, just as the sight of monks in their robes and girdles touches some ascetic, hidden corner of my soul.

What is beautiful is moral, that is all there is to it.

The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror

Snicker on hearing his name: 'the gentleman who thinks we are descended from the apes.'

The finest works of art are those in which there is the least matter. The closer expression comes to thought, the more the word clings to the idea and disappears, the more beautiful the work of art.

One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming an idiot oneself.