The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.

• In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
• An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.
• An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.
• The waking mind is the least serviceable in the arts.
• Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.
• When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.
• The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.
• In the attempt to defeat death man has been inevitably obliged to defeat life, for the two are inextricably related. Life moves on to death, and to deny one is to deny the other.
• The Teutons have been singing the swan song ever since they entered the ranks of history. They have always confounded truth with death.
• All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.