Great poetry must be admired, because it is great and because it is poetry, and so we admire it.

I became bold because I had absolutely nothing to lose: neither honors, nor earnings, nor friends. I had to find myself anew and rely only on myself, because I could rely on no one else. My form is my solitude.

Not surprisingly, because too much attention to one object leads to distraction, this one object conceals everything else, and when we focus on one point on the map we know that all other points are eluding us.

Man is profoundly dependent on the reflection of himself in another man's soul, be it even the soul of an idiot.

Don't be fooled by your own wisdom

To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage.

I didn't go to the lectures. My valet, who was more distinguished than I, went instead.