Love is the most subtle form of self-interest.

Books are never out of humour; never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; ... they teach us how to live and how to die; they dispel melancholy by their mirth, and amuse by their wit; they prepare the soul to suffer everything and desire nothing; they introduce us to ourselves.

Sacrifice is a form of bargaining.

History proves there is no better advertisement for a book than to condemn it for obscenity.

The great revolution of the future will be Nature's revolt against man.

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."

Genius is initiative on fire.