The heroes of obtrusiveness, people with whom no soldier would lie down in the trenches, though he has to submit to being interviewed by them, break into recently abandoned royal castles so that they can report, "We got there first!" It would be far less shameful to be paid for committing atrocities than for fabricating them.

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

Sorrento, August. For two weeks now I haven't heard a German word or understood an Italian one. This way one can manage to live with people; everything goes like clockwork and no irksome misunderstanding can arise.

A man's jealousy is a social institution; a woman's prostitution is an instinct.

In a hollow head there is much room for knowledge.

Humanity is the washerwoman of society that wrings out its dirty laundry in tears.

There is no more unfortunate creature under the sun than a fetishist who yearns for a woman's shoe and has to settle for the whole woman.