Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life.

The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back.

The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.

This is something that I cannot get over -- that a whole line could be written by half a man, that a work could be built on the quicksand of a character.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Sentimental irony is a dog that bays at the moon while pissing on graves.

Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.

The immorality of men triumphs over the amorality of women.

The esthete stands in the same relation to beauty as the pornographer stands to love, and the politician stands to life.