In most cases, when the lion, weary of obeying its master, has torn and devoured him, its nerves are pacified and it looks round for another master before whom to grovel.

The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect that our judgments judge us, and that nothing exposes our weaknesses and reveals ourselves more naively than the attitude of pronouncing upon our neighbors.

Politeness is organized indifference.

A poem is never finished, only abandoned.

Whatever we succeed in doing is a transformation of something we have failed to do. Thus, when we fail, it is only because we have given up.

Great things are accomplished by those who do not feel the impotence of man. This is a precious gift.

The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds.