A photograph acquires something of the dignity which it ordinarily lacks when it ceases to be a reproduction of reality and shows us things that no longer exist.

But I consoled myself with the reflexion that in spite of everything she was for me the real point of intersection between reality and dream.

Under each station of the real, another glimmers.

Certain favourite roles are played by us so often before the public and rehearsed so carefully when we are alone that we find it easier to refer to their fictitious testimony than to that of a reality which we have almost entirely forgotten.

Existence is of little interest save on days when the dust of realities is mingled with magic sand.

If we are to make reality endurable, we must all nourish a fantasy or two.

In a separation it is the one who is not really in love who says the more tender things.

All the mind's activity is easy if it is not subjected to reality.

The soldier is convinced that a certain indefinitely extendable time period is accorded him before he is killed, the burglar before he is caught, men in general, before they must die. That is the amulet which preserves individuals — and sometimes populations — not from danger, but from the fear of danger, in reality from the belief in danger, which in some cases allows them to brave it without being brave. Such a confidence, just as unfounded, supports the lover who counts on a reconciliation, a letter.