Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiation - creation - there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans.

I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!

What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves.

Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does

Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.

Ill-humor is nothing more than an inward feeling of our own want of merit, a dissatisfaction with ourselves which is always united with an envy that foolish vanity excites.

One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.