“Persistent ill-humour is all too clear an indication that someone is living contrary to his[her] intended purpose.”

“We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.”

“The abstract is no more than an instrument, an organ, to see the concrete clearly.”

“The poet begins where the man ends.The man's lot is to live his human life,the poet's to invent what is nonexistent.”

“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do. ”

“The metaphor is perhaps the most fruitful power of man. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.”

“For there is no doubt that the most radical division that it is possible to make of humanity is that which splits it into two classes of creatures: those who make great demands on themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves, but for whom to live is to be every moment what they already are, without imposing on themselves any effort towards perfection; mere buoys that float on the waves.”