It would be no loss to the world if most of the writers now writing had been strangled at birth.

Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.

The word 'idiot' comes from a Greek root meaning private person. Idiocy is the female defect: intent on their private lives, women follow their fate through a darkness deep as that cast by malformed cells in the brain. It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy: men are so obsessed by public affairs that they see the world as by moonlight, which shows the outlines of every object but not the details indicative of their nature.

It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to write a historical work. He would then realize that the human race is in quite a jam about truth.

Motherhood is neither a duty nor a privilege, but simply the way that humanity can satisfy the desire for physical immortality and triumph over the fear of death.

Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind.

Why must you always try to be omnipotent, and shove things about? Tragic things happen sometimes that we just have to submit to.