Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.
Either you think – or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
Either one learns politeness at home or the world teaches it to you with a whip and you may get hurt in the process.
Don’t let the victor belong to the spoils.
Debut: the first time a young girl is seen drunk in public.
Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.
Boredom is not an end-product, is comparatively rather an early stage in life and art. You’ve got to go by or past or through boredom, as through a filter, before the clear product emerges.
At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.
At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That’s a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try.
An idea ran back and forth in his head like a blind man, knocking over the solid furniture.
An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.
