“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

“It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

“The mimicry of passion is the most intolerable of all poses.”

“Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

“If we're always guided by other people's thoughts, what's the point in having our own?”

“A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do.”