1. “A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn't make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it.”
2. “A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.”
3. “A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.”
4. “Be happy. It is a way of being wise.”
5. “Boredom helps one to make decisions.”
6. "By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet."
7. “Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.”
8. ”I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.”
9. ”I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer.”
10. ”In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.”
11. "In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness."
12. "Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignified pastime -- I'm referring to the kind of suffering a man inflicts on a woman or a woman on a man. It's extremely painful. I agree that it's hardly bearable. But I very much fear that this sort of pain deserves no consideration at all. It's no more worthy of respect than old age or illness."
13. "It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place."
14. “Look for a long time at what pleases you, and for a longer time at what pains you.”
15. “My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.”
16. “No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.”
17. "On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us --ah! what a dream, to live in that! --the other stifles us at the first breath."
18. ”Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.”
19. ”Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.”
20. "Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette."
21. ”The cat is the animal to whom the Creator gave the biggest eye, the softest fur, the most supremely delicate nostrils, a mobile ear, an unrivaled paw and a curved claw borrowed from the rose-tree.”
22. “There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.”
23. ”There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.”
24. ”The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.”
25. “The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixity, should stop writing immediately: the time has come for him to lay aside his pen.”
26. “Total absence of humor renders life impossible.”
27. “What a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.”
28. “What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.”
29. “When she raises her eyelids, it is as if she is undressing.”
30. “Writing only leads to more writing.”
31. “You do not notice changes in what is always before you.”
32. “You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.”
