Thus, the technique of metropolitan life is unimaginable without the most punctual integration of all activities and mutual relations into a stable and impersonal time schedule.

He is educated who knows how to find out what he doesn't know.

The intellectually sophisticated person is indifferent to all genuine individuality, because relationships and reactions result from it which cannot be exhausted with logical operations.

For, to be a stranger is naturally a very positive relation; it is a specific form of interaction.

Modern culture is constantly growing more objective. Its tissues grow more and more out of impersonal energies, and absorb less and less the subjective entirety of the individual.

By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.

Every relationship between two individuals or two groups will be characterized by the ratio of secrecy that is involved in it.

Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.

Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the barriers by gossip or confession.

Cities are, first of all, seats of the highest economic division of labor.

Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.

To enjoy the beauty of love, be a big person in this small world.

Maybe life does suck, Pork Chop, but it beats the hell out of the alternative.

I exist no more, every moment a new being lives inside me.

Monsieur, innocence is its own crown! Innocence has only to act to be noble! She is as august in rags as fleur de lys.

If I cling to circumstances I could feel not responsible. Only she who says she did not choose, is the loser in the end.

In the face of such overwhelming statistical possibilities hypochondria has always seems to me to be the only rational position to take on life.

The most important thing is to remain active and to love what you are doing.

My only mistake was in waiting too long to be rid of you", Adri said, running the washcloth between her fingers. "Believe me, Cinder. You are a sacrifice I will never regret.

When I was very young I was reading a lot of Latin American fiction, which later would be called "boom fiction."

We enjoy freedom and the rule of law on which it depends, not because we deserve it, but because others before us put their lives on the line to defend it.