Everything is too far away in the past, or mysteriously too close.

Want of passion is, I think, a very striking characteristic of Americans, not unrelated to their predilection for violence. For very few people truly have a passionate desire to achieve, and violence serves as a kind of substitute.

I think still that someone wiser than I might well have remained happy till his death.

Writing is a perpetual choice between a thousand expressions, none of which satisfies me, none of which, above all, satisfies me without the others. Yet I ought to know that only music permits a succession of chords.

The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools.

It is not difficult to nourish admirable thoughts when the stars are present.

Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.