Everybody has noticed the way cats stop and loiter in a half-open door. Hasn't everyone said to a cat: For heavens sake why don't you come in? With opportunity half-open in front of them, there are men who have a similar tendency to remain undecided between two solutions, at the risk of being crushed by fate abruptly closing the opportunity. The overprudent, cats as they are, and because they are cats, sometimes run more danger than the bold

The last resort of kings, the cannonball. The last resort of the people, the paving stone.

France lost a great novel last night.

I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.

A fixed idea ends in madness or heroism.

Logic ignores the almost, just as the sun ignores the candle.

The most beautiful of altars, he said, is the soul of an unhappy creature consoled and thankfing God.