The coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic.

it was odd, he thought, that a man could hate himself as though he were someone else.

[Stéphane Mallarmé] theory of the hermetic is a mistake, but he can be only difficult to read when he has difficult things to say.

An individual chooses and makes himself.

It is always more valuable to report the truth.

I enjoy feeling fastidious and aloof. I enjoy saying no, always no, and I should be afraid of any attempt to construct a finally habitable world, because I should merely have to say - Yes; and act like other people.

Man is condemned to be free