Romantic literature is in effect imaginative lying.
One should never listen. To listen is a sign of indifference to one's hearers.
All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.
Out of the unreal shadows of night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off... p 207
A man who takes himself too seriously will find that no one else takes him seriously.
The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. He is the very basis of civilized society.