And if a diversion is needed, why not arrest a general? Arthur Dillon is a friend of eminent deputies, a contender for the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Front; he has proved himself at Valmy and in a halfdozen actions since. In the National Assembly he was a liberal; now he is a republican. Isn't it then logical that he should be thrown into gaol, July 1, on suspicion of passing military secrets to the enemy?

Suppose within each book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives.

Beneath every history, another history.

For many imaginative writers, working for the press is a fact of their life. But it's best not to like it too much.

Sometimes peace looks like war, you cannot tell them apart.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home.