As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

Nothing will change the fact that I cannot produce the least thing without absolute solitude.

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action.

I do not speak of what I cannot praise.