At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it.

Quite possibly, what I call happiness may coincide with what others call the moment of imminent danger

I seemed like a baby bird keeping its truly innocent animal lusts hidden under its wing. I was being tempted, not by the desire of possession, but simply by unadorned temptation itself.

Men had been living a proud life, having felt no need for the spirit-until Christianity invented it.

For an artist to do creative work, he needs at once physical health and some physiomental ill health. He needs both serenity and gloom.

Young people get the foolish idea that what is new for them must be new for everybody else too. No matter how unconventional they get, they're just repeating what others before them have done.

...of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.