Children today laugh at fathers who tell them about dragons. It is necessary to make fear a required subject; otherwise children will never learn it.

A bibliophile has approximately the same relationship to literature as a philatelist to geography.

In Berlin, things are serious but not hopeless. In Vienna, they are hopeless but not serious.

In the theater one must sit in such a way that one sees the audience as a dark mass. Then it cannot bother one more than it does an actor. Nothing is more disturbing than being able to distinguish individuals in the crowd.

It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.

One must read all writers twice--the good as well as the bad. The one kind will be recognized; the other, unmasked.

Intercourse with a woman is sometimes a satisfactory substitute for masturbation. But it takes a lot of imagination to make it work.