"

The rustic, the reader of novels, the pure ascetic: these three are truly happy men

"

Children are particularly literary, for they say what they feel not what someone has taught them to feel.

"

We, all who live, haveA life that is livedAnd another life that is thought,And the only life we haveIt's the one that is dividedIn right or wrong.

"

If after I die, people want to write my biography, there is nothing simpler. They only need two dates: the date of my birth and the date of my death. ...more

"

Isn't joyful or painful this pain in which I rejoice

"

Ah! The anguish, the vile rage, the despairOf not being able to expressWith a shout, an extreme and bitter shout,The bleeding of my heart.

"

Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone!To be remiss is to be positively out in the country!What a refuge it is to be completely unreli...more

"

Again I see you, But me I don't see!, The magical mirror in which I saw myself has been broken, And only a piece of me I see in each fatal fragment - ...more

"

To be great, be whole;Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you.Be whole in everything. Put all you areInto the smallest thing you do.So, in...more

"

Lord, may the pain be ours, And the weakness that it brings, But at least give us the strength, Of not showing it to anyone!

"

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

"

I feel closer ties and more intimate bonds with certain characters in books, with certain images I’ve seen in engravings, than with many supposedly re...more

"

To have touched the feet of Christ is no excuse for mistakes in punctuation.If a man writes well only when he's drunk, then I'll tell him: Get drunk. ...more

"

To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as...more

"

There's no greater proof of an impoverished mind than its inability to be witty except at other people's expense.