Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.

Poe is the only impeccable writer. He was never mistaken.

If what has happened in the one person were communicated directly to the other, all art would collapse, all the effects of art would disappear.

Breath, dreams, silence, invincible calm, you triumph.

From the moment that photography appeared, the descriptive genre began to invade Letters... In verse as in prose the décor and exterior aspects of life took an almost excessive place.

The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability.