It is precisely those artists and writers who are most inclined to think of their art as the manifestation of their personality who are in fact the most in bondage to public taste.

A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is anonymous about it.

We only possess what we renounce; what we do not renounce escapes from us.

In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

If we concentrate our attention on trying to solve a problem of geometry, and if at the end of an hour we are no nearer to doing so than at the beginning, we have nevertheless been making progress each minute of that hour in another more mysterious dimension. Without knowing or feeling it, this apparent barren affort has brought more light into the soul.

The need of truth is more sacred than any other need.