He was fond of books, for they are cool and sure friends

Superstitions, bigotries, hypocrisies, prejudices, these phantoms, phantoms though they be, cling to life; they have teeth and nails in their shadowy substance, and we must grapple with them individually and make war on them without truce; for it is one of humanity's inevitabilities to be condemned to eternal struggle with phantoms.

Too much improvisation leaves the mind stupidly void.

...there is a point when the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confused in a word, a mortal word, les miserables

The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.

She was a lovely blonde, with fine teeth. She had gold and pearls for her dowry; but her gold was on her head, and her pearls were in her mouth.

There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.