Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

What is forgiven is usually well remembered.

There are two kinds of people; those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievement from the second.

All the ills of mankind spring from belonging to a race, a nation, a city, a group of some kind. The ideal would be to belong to none, and to care for allbut who is capable of that?

Art is anything people do with distinction.

A good reputation is better than fame.

Intellectually, most people never wash. They never free their minds of the accumulated rubbish of centuries.

The best live among us in disguise.

Imagination should be integrated with life, not turned into a separate activity, art, that monopolizes one's whole existence.

A critic at best is a waiter at the great table of literature.

She wept with shame for her lack of will and with fear for a love she couldn't control.

All we can hope for is that he will fall into the ocean with a bar of soap in his pocket.

Why should people pay good money to go out and see bad films when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing?

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.

I have my own definition of minimalism, which is that which is created with a minimum of means.

The universe of poetry is the universe of emotional truth. Our material is in the way we feel and the way we remember.

I'm very parasitic, from my own experiences. I just go and mine my dirty laundry, you know, and go through it until I find something that's interesting enough to me to write a song about.

The human race likes to give itself airs. One good volcano can produce more greenhouse gases in a year than the human race has in its entire history.