Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

As humanity perfects itself, man becomes degraded. When everything is reduced to the mere counter-balancing of economic interests, what room will there be for virtue? When Nature has been so subjugated that she has lost all her original forms, where will that leave the plastic arts? And so on. In the mean time, things are going to get very murky.

Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.

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

One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.

But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.

But life is not a series of deeds. My life is my thoughts.

Međutim, ako brojim godine, nije tome davno što sam se rodio, ali imam brojne uspomene koje osjećam kako me tište, kao što tište starce svi dani što su ih proživjeli; čini mi se katkada da sam trajao dugim stoljećima, i da moje biće sadržava u sebi ostatke od tisuću prošlih života.

I invite all brats to throw their cookies at the baker’s head if they’re not sweet, winos to chuck their wine if it’s bad, the dying to shuck their souls when they croak, and men to throw their existence in God’s face when it’s bitter