It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree.

• It is regrettable that, among the Rights of Man, the right of contradicting oneself has been forgotten.
• A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.
• There exist only three beings worthy of respect the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.
• There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start.
• I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial.
• It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.
• The world only goes round by misunderstanding.
• Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.
• Any healthy man can go without food for two days -- but not without poetry.
• It is the greatest art of the devil to convince us he does not exist.