The good tidings which the historian of the past brings with throbbing heart may be lost in a void the very moment he opens his mouth.

We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them when in fact it is the books that preserve their collector.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

To the lover the loved one always appears as solitary.

There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to forego the life of the gentleman of leisure. His leisurely appearance as a personality is his protest against the division of labour which makes people into specialists. it was also his protest against their industriousness. Around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to take turtles for a walk in the arcades. the flneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them.

The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.

It is in a small village in the Pyrenees where no one knows me 7that my life will come to a close.... There is not enough time remaining for me to write all the letters I would like to write.