“...every man needs an obsessio in order to enjoy life, and it was so much the better if that obsession was constructive.”

“The truth is not that we need the critics in order to enjoy the authors, but that we need the authors in order to enjoy the critics.”

“A man's needs are few. The simpler the life, therefore, the better. Indeed, only three things are truly necessary in order to make life happy: the blessing of God, the benefit of books, and the benevolence of friends.”

“Man needs difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success.”

“...the angel in man-- has also been my own life-long obsession. In a sense I believe it has always been the problem of the creative being... obsessed... with the idea of re-creating the world in order, as I see it, to re-establish man's innocence.”

“For once you yourself cease to take pleasure in the common enjoyments of life, you hate the normal man who is so much more fortunate than yourself.”