In the course of a life devoted less to living than to reading, I have verified many times that literary intentions and theories are nothing more than stimuli and that the final work usually ignores or even contradicts them.

Doubt is one of the names of intelligence.

From my weakness, I drew strength that never left me.

A system is nothing more than the subordination of all aspects of the universe to any one of such aspects.

Fame is a form, perhaps the worst form, of incomprehension.

I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters.

There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately useless.