“An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.”

The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul.

The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one’s opinion but rather to know it.

There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity.

If you value a man’s regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper – and despise it.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity – romantic love and gunpowder.

Modesty and unselfishness – these are the virtues which men praise – and pass by.

If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author’s life.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Actors cannot work against each other. It’s totally impossible.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

Even after centuries of human interacting, children still continue to rebel against their parents and siblings.

We Athenians hold that it is not poverty that is disgraceful but the failure to struggle against it.

When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.

Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.

It is that we are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never no helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object of its love.

It is a predisposition of human nature to consider an unpleasant idea untrue, and then it is easy to find arguments against it.