A poem is never finished, only abandoned.

An intelligent woman is a woman with whom one can be as stupid as one wants.

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.

Conscience reigns but it does not govern.

A man is a poet if difficulties inherent in his art provide him with ideas; he is not a poet if they deprive him of ideas.

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.

All nations have present, or past, or future reasons for thinking themselves incomparable.