Perhaps she would have liked to confide all these things to someone. But how tell an undefinable uneasiness, variable as the clouds, unstable as the winds? Words failed her—the opportunity, the courage.

Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we bang out tunes that make bears dance, when what we want is to move the stars to pity

Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.

The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.

An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

I refuse to consider Art a drain-pipe for passion, a kind of chamberpot, a slightly more elegant substitute for gossip and confidences. No, no! Genuine poetry is not the scum of the heart.

And she felt as though she had been there, on that bench, for an eternity. For an infinity of passion can be contained in one minute, like a crowd in a small space.

Talent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation.

Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature.

I maintain that ideas are events. It is more difficult to make them interesting, I know, but if you fail the style is at fault.

Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution.

Never have things of the spirit counted for so little. Never has hatred for everything great been so manifest – disdain for beauty, execration of literature. I have always tried to live in an ivory...

When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at night are made for mediocre minds – like those horses that...

The sight of so many ruins destroys any desire to build shanties; all this ancient dust makes one indifferent to fame.

Have you really not noticed, then, that here of all places, in this private, personal solitude that surrounds me, I have turned to you? All the memories of my youth speak to me as I...

Speech is a rolling-mill that always thins out the sentiment.

Sometimes I think I’m liquefying like an old Camembert

Print: to see one’s name in print! – Some people commit a crime for no other reason

The cult of art gives pride; one never has too much of it.

Read in oreder to live

Maybe happiness too is a metaphor invented on a day of boredom

Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.

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

But vilifying those we love always detaches us from them a little. We should not touch our idols: their gilding will remain on our hands.

The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror

The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts.

Human speech is a cracked cauldron on which we knock out tunes for dancing bears, when we wish to conjure pity from the stars.

Then they wondered if there were men in the stars. Why not? And as creation is harmonious, the inhabitants of Sirius ought to be huge, those of Mars middle-sized, those of Venus very small. Unless...

Writing is a dog’s life, but the only one worth living.

By trying to understand everything, everything makes me dream

Everyone rushes wherever his instincts impel him, the populace swarms like insects over a corpse, poets pass by without having the time to sculpt their thoughts, hardly have they scribbled their ideas down on sheets...

I have patience in all things – as far as the antechamber.

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.

A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.

One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.

How wonderful to find in living creatures the same substance as those which make up minerals. Nevertheless they felt a sort of humiliation at the idea that their persons contained phosphorous like matches, albumen like...

My foregrounds are imaginary, my backgrounds real.

As for the piano, the faster her fingers flew over it, the more he marveled. She struck the keys with aplomb and ran from one end of the keyboard to the other without a stop.

Quelle bassesse que de penser toujours au prolongement de son existence! La vie n’est bonne qu’à la condition d’en jouir. (ch. III)

[T]he truth is that fullness of soul can sometimes overflow in utter vapidity of language, for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and...

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.

The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

Je ne suis pas plus moderne qu’ancien, pas plus Français que Chinois, et l’idée de la patrie c’est-à-dire l’obligation où l’on est de vivre sur un coin de terre marqué en rouge ou en bleu...

How we keep these dead souls in our hearts. Each one of us carries within himself his necropolis.

I believe in the Supreme Being, in a Creator, whatever he may be. I care little who has placed us here below to fulfil our duties as citizens and fathers of families; but I don’t...

Deep in her soul, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in...

On days when it was too hot, they did not leave their room. The dazzling brilliance from outside plastered bars of light between the slats of the blinds. Not a sound in the village. Down...

I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die. I want...

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming idiotic oneself