“Biography lends to death a new terror.”

“Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.”

“The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.”

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”

“It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.”

“There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make one almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.”

“The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”