"His shell was too hard—and this was the tragedy of his existence. He was reserved to excess, and kept everything locked up within himself."

"And, just like Saint-Simon, seemingly a shallow courtier at the king’s court, secretly he becomes the actor and judge of an entire epoch."

"At first he noticed merely that he was different from the ruck, that he was more delicately poised, more sensitive, more keen-sighted."

"FEW have lied more arrantly or quizzed the world with greater delight than Stendhal; few have told the truth with more profundity than he."

Le cinéma, la radio, la danse, tous ces nouveaux moyens de mécanisation de l’humanité, exercent un pouvoir énorme qui ne peut être dépassé.

"Balzac realised even from the early volumes the particular quality of Stendhal’s intelligence and his mastery of psychology."

"No less remarkable than Balzac’s genius as a writer was his lack of aptitude for the role of society lion."

"Let us take a day in Balzac’s working life, a day typical of thousands."

"The works of great artists are silent books of eternal truths."

"On est quelque peu étonné du contraste apparent qui se révèle chez Verhaeren entre l’art poétique et l’art de la vie."

"Nietzsche, therefore, never set up house with knowledge so as to economise and preserve; he built no spiritual home over his head."

"A void surrounded him, an awe-inspiring silence; no hermit or anchorite in the desert was ever more abandoned."

"The black trees stood around me, rustling, and I loved them. Stars shone down from above, and I breathed in their white salutation."

"The same book in the hand, the same pen between the fingers, the same conversation on the lips, and the same automobile instead of feet."

"Nous fûmes tout d’abord deux ou trois seulement à découvrir en nous cet intérêt pour les arts, la musique, la littérature..."