Inspiration is the opportunity of genius.

We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.

Music is of two kinds: one petty, poor, second-rate, never varying, its base the hundred or so phrasings which all musicians understand, a babbling which is more or less pleasant, the life that most composers live.

Materialism and spirituality are two pretty racquets with which charlatans in cap and gown make the same ball fly.

It is very difficult to pass from pleasure to work. Accordingly more poems have been swallowed up by sorrow than ever happiness caused to blaze forth in unparalleled radiance.

No woman has ever existed who did not know perfectly well in her heart what to expect from the superiority or inferiority of a rival.

Admiration bestowed upon any one but ourselves is always tedious.