It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.

The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.

The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.

What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told.

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.

What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself-and thus make yourself indispensable.

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.

Not everyone can be an orphan.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

"Therefore" is a word the poet must not know.

The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.

Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.

It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

The color of truth is gray.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.

It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.

Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.