“Let us beware of common folk, common sense, sentiment, inspiration, and the obvious. ”

“Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.”

“Inspiration comes of working every day.”

“Passion I hate, and spirit does me wrong. Let us love gently.”

“We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose. ”

“There are women who inspire you with the desire to conquer them and to take your pleasure of them; but this one fills you only with the desire to die slowly beneath her gaze.”

“Good sense tells us that earthly things are rare and fleeting, and that true reality exists only in dreams. To draw sustenance from happiness- natural or artificial - you must first have the courage to swallow it; and those who perhaps most merit happiness are precisely those on whom felicity, as mortals conceive it, always acts as a vomitive. ”