Without opium, plans, marriages and journeys appear to me just as foolish as if someone falling out of a window were to hope to make friends with the occupants of the room before which he passes.

Alas! I do not believe that inspiration falls from heaven. think it rather the result of a profound indolence.

And history becomes legend and legend becomes history.

I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love

One must not mistake majority for truth.

The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.

Since it's now fashionable to laugh at the conservative French Academy, I have remained a rebel by joining it.