They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.
He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.
Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex. One should seekthe simple solution.
There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked.
A fiance is neither this nor that: he’s left one shore, but not yet reached the other.
I am dying. I haven’t drunk champagne for a long time.
I’ve noticed that people who get married cease to be curious.
Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.
One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.
Formerly, when I would feel a desire to understand someone, or myself, I would take into consideration not actions, in which everything is relative, but wishes. Tell me what you want and I’ll tell you who you are.
Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.
The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.
To advise is not to compel.
If I had listened to the critics I’d have died drunk in the gutter.
When you live on cash, you understand the limits of the world around which you navigate each day. Credit leads into a desert with invisible boundaries.
Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one’s dignity.
If there’s a gun on the wall in act one, scene one, you must fire the gun by act three, scene two. If you fire a gun in act three, scene two, you must see the gun on the wall in act one, scene one.
Only one who loves can remember so well.