I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.

I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another.

One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.

Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.

The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.

Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!

Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.