“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

“Everything's already been said, but since nobody was listening, we have to start again.”

“Throw away my book: you must understand that it represents only one of a thousand attitudes. You must find your own. If someone else could have done something as well as you, don’t do it. If someone else could have said something as well as you, don’t say it—or written something as well as you, don’t write it. Grow fond only of that which you can find nowhere but in yourself, and create out of yourself, impatiently or patiently, ah! that most irreplaceable of beings.”

“Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.”

“The priest accepted me, I accepted the priest, so everything went off smoothly.”

“Art begins with resistance—at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.”

“He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.”