All Quotes

"The important business of man is life, and the important business of life is death."

"To descend into ourselves, we must first lift ourselves up."

"Tacitus. And all those words that are obscure only once."

"In these times when, to express ourselves, we must speak in a way others do not."

"Think nothing outside their paper."

"I did not have good eyes nor light in my mind that day."

"Available. A thought is perfect only when it is perfectly available, that is to say when one can place it and detach it at will."

"All those whom for style is not a game but a labor."

"...burdened with the unbearable weight of ourselves."

"All clear and transparent words appear to be beautiful sounds. Yes and no are not precisely clear words, but definite words. In clear words, there is more light than movement or attitude."

"What you call weakness comes from the strength of friendship."

"Beyond the brain, there is something that observes the brain itself."

"Undoubtedly, philosophy caused the Revolution. But what caused philosophy? Theological arrogance."

"Those who never back down love themselves more than they love the truth."

"From the center we should perceive the circle."

"One always adds a little of one's soul to what one thinks."

"All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so."

"I have too much brain for my head. It cannot play comfortably in its box."

"There must be several voices together in one voice for it to be beautiful. And several meanings in one word for it to be beautiful."

"For in spite of ourselves we respect those whom we see respected."

"Man loves what is small; and he loves what is big, through the same weakness."

"I stop when I see no more light; it is impossible for me to write by feeling my way."

"What is promised to you in dreams is given to you in dreams!"

"Those who have judgment use it as much as in judging stones as in judging men."

"Beauty is something animal, the beautiful is something celestial."

"What we say is similar to what we are."

"In living, one learns how to read. (How, and with what result.)"

"Little people have few passions, they hardly have anything but needs."

"Speak for the ear and write for the memory."

"A book that reveals the mind is worth more than one that only reveals its subject."

"Poetry of ideas."

"Few minds are spacious; few even have an empty place in them or can offer some vacant point. Almost all have narrow capacities and are filled by some knowledge that blocks them up. What a torture to talk to filled heads, that allow nothing from the outside to enter them! A good mind, in order to enjoy itself and allow itself to enjoy others, always keeps itself larger than its own thoughts. And in order to do this, this thoughts must be given a pliant form, must be easily folded and unfolded, so they are capable, finally, or maintaining a natural flexibility. All those short-sighted minds see clearly within their little ideas and see nothing in those of others; they are like those bad eyes that see from close range what is obscure and cannot perceive what is clear from afar. Night minds, minds of darkness."

"During our youth, there is something in us that is better than ourselves, I mean better than our desires, our pleasures, our yieldings, and our inclinations. Our soul is good then, even though our intelligence and will are not."

"Whoever does not see his friends in a good light loves them little. To see in a good light. — Whoever does not see in a good light is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover. Whoever does not see in a good light has not been able to lift his mind up to what is there or his heart to what is good."

"Strength is not energy. Some writers have more muscles than talent."

"A stupid lie is one that can never make itself believed."

"People of intelligence often treat business in the way ignorant people treat books: they understand nothing."

"No, men are not born to know, but they are destined for it."

"Of those who want us to be wrong and those who want us to be right."

"When the last word is always the one that offers itself first, the work becomes difficult."

"Properly speaking, man inhabits only his head and his heart. All other places are vainly before his eyes, at his sides, and under his feet: he himself is not there at all."

"I am like Montaigne: "unsuited to continuous discourse.""

"Wicked people have nothing human about them except passions: they are almost their virtues."

"The truth! Only God sees it."

"Maxims, because what is isolated can be seen better."

"Necessity can make a doubtful action innocent, but it cannot make it commendable."

"Sloth waiting for inspiration."

"The breath of the mind is attention."

"Animals love the people who talk to them."

"The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones."