Politics is simply the organization of hatreds.

The less a tourist knows, the fewer mistakes he need make, for he will not expect himself to explain ignorance.

A parent gives life, but as parent, gives no more. A murderer takes life, but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Nothing is more tiresome than a superannuated pedagogue.

We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.

The sensation of seeing extremely fine women, with superb forms, perfectly unconscious of undress, and yet evidently aware of their beauty and dignity, is worth a week's seasickness to experience... [to me] the effect [of a Siva dance] was that of a dozen Rembrandts intensified into the most glowing beauty of life and motion.

The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one strikes out every commonplace in the expression.