We are ignorant of the Beyond because this ignorance is the condition of our own life. Just as ice cannot know fire except by melting and vanishing.

if I were to begin my life again, I should want it as it was. I would only open my eyes a little more.

There are no friends; only moments of friendship.

I have no religion,’ says Borneau, ‘but I respect the religion of others. Religion is sacred.’ Why this privilege, this immunity?... A believer creates God in his own image; if he is ugly, his God will be morally ugly. Why should moral ugliness be respectable?

The reward of great men is that, long after they have died, one is not quite sure that they are dead

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.

To succeed you must add water to your wine, until there is no more wine.