There are two infinities that confuse me: the one in my soul devours me; the one around me will crush me

One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming an idiot oneself.

For him the universe did not extend beyond the circumference of her petticoat.

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.

Exuberance is better than taste.

Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.

I don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is.

Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling.

Read in order to live.

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.

The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

Do not imagine you can exorcise what oppresses you in life by giving vent to it in art.

One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.

Talent is nothing but long patience.

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.