“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”

“We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.”

“Life is like a flame that is always burning itself out...”

“A learned man is an idler who kills time by study.”

“If you teach a man anything, he will never learn.”

“Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.”

“I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to a literary club I belong to a municipal council. Instead of drinking and discussing authors and reviews, I sit on committees with capable practical greengrocers and bootmakers... Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.”