The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that he who seeks his own happiness does not find it; that he who is weak must suffer; that he who demands love will be disappointed; that he who is greedy will not be fed; that he who seeks peace will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for him who does not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die.

For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too.

The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer

Politics is like navigation in a sea without charts, and wise men live the lives of pilgrims.

Where can one find a profounder desolation than in the poor child who has lost its mother?

A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.

Funeral expenses are the curse of the poor everywhere on earth, they are wasteful and unnecessary, they are the price of foolish ostentation and a display that is less an evidence of grief than a vulgar travesty of those pompous obsequies where no grief is.