He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging... This confers the tone and bearing of genuine reminiscences. He must not be afraid to return again and again to the same matter; to scatter it as one scatters earth, to turn it over as one turns over soil.

The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing.

The concept of progress must be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things are 'status quo' is the catastrophe

I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.

Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information-hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.

The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.