I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt.

You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.

The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

Of all the passions, the only one that seems respectable to me is the passion for food

It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.

Yes, she's bleeding to death upstairs, but I thought I'd avoid telling you right away, because I like to draw the suspense out.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

My father's a preacher, my mother's a teacher, thus I rhyme.

Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.

In my heart of hearts I believe I was made to entertain.

Breathing is the greatest pleasure in life

History is one damn thing after another.

The three greatest composers are Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. All the others are cretins.

The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we're a long, long ways from that.

The main factor in meditation is to keep the mind active in its own pursuit without taking in external impressions or thinking of other matters.