No matter how much we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition.

Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman).

Necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value.

Common European thought is the fruit of the immense toil of translators. Without translators, Europe would not exist; translators are more important than members of the European Parliament.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.

The body was a cage, and inside that cage was something which looked, listened, feared, thought and marveled; that something, that remainder left over after the body had been accounted for, was the soul.

Art arises from sources other than logic." (p.32)