He realized at last that the arguments of pessimism were powerless to comfort him

Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin.

Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.

The modern painter…is an excellent couturier

Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.

Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.

Art and prayer are the only decent ejaculations of the soul.

The loveliest tune imaginable becomes vulgar and insupportable as soon as the public begins to hum it and the hurdy-gurdies make it their own.

Only the chaste are truly obscene.

How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.

Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.

If not us, then who? Who's going to stand when everyone else kneels? Who's going to argue for the law even when there's no justice to be had? Who's going to try even when the trying is too damn hard?

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but those well-arranged words are worth a multi-million-dollar motion picture.

We're all hunters in my family, you know. Deer, ducks…damsels.

Saying of the ProphetMonkishnessNo monkery in Islam.

When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry, ' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.

My guess is the great majority of teachers would welcome a system where innovation is embraced, where their hard work and their students' achievement are applauded and rewarded.

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

You must attain a neurological and biological serenity in chaos. You cannot let yourself be sabotaged by adrenaline.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.

I don't think I would want my children to enter into my profession. There's a lot of stress and so much competition. There are easier things you can do with your life.