Solitude would be ideal if you could pick the people to avoid.

How powerful social mores are! Only a spider's web lies across the volcano, yet it refrains from erupting.

To me it's still a greater miracle when a fly flies than when a human being undertakes to do so.

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.

Through my satire I make little people so big that afterwards they are worthy objects of my satire and no one can reproach me any longer.

There are two kinds of writers, those who are and those who aren't. With the first, content and form belong together like soul and body; with the second, they match each other like body and clothes.

You don't even live once.