For only that which we knew and practiced at age 15 will one day constitute our attraction. And one thing, therefore, can never be made good: having neglected to run away from home.

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

Only for the sake of the hopeless ones have we been given hope.

Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.

Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present.

It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.

Books, too, begin like the week – with a day of rest in memory of their creation. The preface is their Sunday.