“I would hear the song of the columns and visualize in the pure sky the monument of a melody.”

“I have made a similar suggestion for poetry: that one should approach it as pure sonority, reading and rereading it as a sort of music, and should not introduce meanings or intentions into the diction before clearly grasping the system of sounds that every poem must offer on pain of nonexistence.”

“I am not averse to generalizing the notion of "modern" to designate a certain way of life, rather than making it purely a synonym of 'contemporary'. There are moments and places in history to which 'we moderns' could return without too greatly disturbing the harmony of those times, without seeming objects infinitely curious and conspicuous... creatures shocking, dissonant, and unassailable.”

“His heart is a desert island.... The whole scope, the whole energy of his mind surround and protect him; his depths isolate him and guard him against the truth. He flatters himself that he is entirely alone there.... Patience, dear lady. Perhaps, one day, he will discover some footprint on the sand.... What holy and happy terror, what salutary fright, once he recognizes in that pure sign of grace that his island is mysteriously inhabited!...”

“What soul would hesitate to turn the universe upside down in order to be a little more itself?”

“What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.”

“Noi, civilizaţiile, ştim acum că suntem muritoare. Am auzit vorbindu-se de lumi dispărute cu totul, de imperii prăbuşindu-se cu toţi oamenii şimaşinăriile lor, căzute în groapa inexplicabilă a secolelor, cu zeii, cu legile lor, cu academiile şiştiinţelor lor pure şi aplicative, cu gramaticile şi dicţionarele lor, cu clasicii, romanticii şisimboliştii lor, cu criticii şi critica criticilor lor. Ştim că pământul întreg e făcut din cenuşă şi căcenuşa semnifică ceva. Zărim prin ceaţa deasă a istoriei fantomele imenselor nave încărcate cubogăţiile spiritului. Nu le putem număra. (...). Vedem că prăpastia istoriei este destul deîncăpătoare pentru toată lumea. Simţim că o civilizaţie are aceeaşi fragilitate ca şi o viaţă.”