Those horses must have been Spanish jennets, born of mares mated with a zephyr; for they went as swiftly as the wind, and the moon, which had risen at our departure to give us light, rolled through the sky like a wheel detached from its carriage.

[Great artists] do not copy what they see, but what they desire.

The cat makes himself the companion of your hours of solitude, melancholy and toil.

Good heavens! what a foolish thing is this pretended perfectibility of the human race which is continually being dinned into our ears!

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

The years I have squandered in puerile excitement, in going hither and thither, in seeking to force nature and time, I ought to have spent in solitude and meditation, in endeavoring to make myself worthy of being loved.

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.