Anesthesia: wounds without pain. Neurasthenia: pain without wounds.

Since the law prohibits the keeping of wild animals and I get no enjoyment from pets, I prefer to remain unmarried.

I can say with pride that I have spent days and nights not reading anything, and that with unflagging energy I use every moment toacquire gradually an encyclopedic lack of education.

Heinrich Heine so loosened the corsets of the German language that today every little salesman can fondle her breasts.

Many women would like to dream with men without sleeping with them. Someone should point out to them that this is utterly impossible.

Progress celebrates victories over nature. Progress makes purses out of human skin. When people were traveling in mail coaches, the world got ahead better than it does now that salesmen fly through the air. What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way? How will the heirs of this age be taught the most basic motions that are necessary to activate the most complicated machines? Nature can rely on progress; it will avenge it for the outrage it has perpetrated on it.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.