Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means.

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death.

But it has often happened that I have found the most seductive depictions of sin in the pages of those very men of incorruptible virtue who condemned their spell and their effects.

Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.

Our most noted satirists are true columnists and their opinions can be worth more than any well-documented exposé.

It takes a little time, but the pleasures of cooking begin before the pleasures of the palate, and preparing means anticipating.

A mystic is a hysteric who has met her confessor before her doctor.