one life would not suffice, mine especially. To touch everything and leave nothing after oneself! Ah! my God! I hope better than that. Ah! I am very cowardly, and under the blow of such a terror I am ready to believe in priests.

They who see only what they wish to see in those around them are very fortunate.

Let us love dogs; let us love only dogs! Men and cats are unworthy creatures.

To live, to have so much ambition, to suffer, to cry, to fight and, at the end, forgetfulness ... as if I had never existed.

Art just consists in making us swallow the commonplaces by charming us eternally.

Art ... is as much a source of happiness for the beginner as for the master. One forgets everything in one's work.

Art consists precisely in making us admire old stories, charming us with them eternally, as Nature charms with her eternal sun, her ancient earth, and her men built all on the same pattern, and all animated by the same feelings.