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

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.

All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.

The killing of a criminal can be moral-but never its legitimation.

Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.