Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.
Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.
One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
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.
Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.
Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.
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.
Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
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.
It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.
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.
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.
In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.