I give dignity second place to expedience.

I do not care to listen; obloquy injures my self-esteem and I am skeptical of praise.

The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.

Good music always defeats bad luck

You used the word "civilization", which means a set of abstractions, symbols, conventions. Experience tends to be vicarious; emotions are predigested and electrical; ideas become more real than things.

Beauty compelled admiration and erotic yearning; such was its organic function. But never by itself could it command love.

The life we've been leading couldn't last forever. It's a wonder it lasted as long as it did.