We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often read more

We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order read more

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain brief sentences read more

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. •Jean Rostand I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding read more

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends-always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that.

Quotations (such as have point and lack triteness) from the great old authors are an act of reverence on the read more

Quotations (such as have point and lack triteness) from the great old authors are an act of reverence on the part of the quoter, and a blessing to a public grown superficial and external.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.