“For every death is a simplification of existence for the others, removes the necessity to show gratitude, the obligation to pay visits.”

“Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in hi...”

“Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as the artist. But they ...”

“Our vanity, our passions, our spirit of imitation, our abstract intelligence, our habits have long been at work, and it is the task of art to undo this work of theirs, making us travel back in the ...”

“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself.”

“ it would even be inexact to say that I thought of those who read it as readers of my book. Because they were not, as I saw it, my readers. More exactly they were readers of themselves, my book bei...”

“We always need a sound reason to move on, and we always pretend to have it.”

“When we need reasons to do something, we pretend to have it.”

“...pretention is very close to stupidity and that simplicity has a less visible but still gratifying aspect.”

“Its as simple as that. Simple and complicated, as most true things are.”

“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”

“Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.”

“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.”

“There are only 2 paths to happiness in life. Utter Stupidity or Exceptional Wealth.”