Quotes

"Cigars contain so much nicotine that people who smoke cigars all day are ruining their stomachs and nerves. A good pipe, a good tobacco, never upsets the stomach. Tobacco from Verpelét is a good way to soften tobacco. The tobacco sold in tobacconists' shops is not tobacco of the Verpelét variety, but only of the yellow leaf variety."

"The light-headed young people who get married think that marrying someone is like buying something in a shop. For example, we see a walking stick in the window, we like it, - we buy it. Then it's ours. We walk around with it, spin it around, tuck it under our arm or wave it around. We get bored, we lean it in the corner, - we put it away for tomorrow. But the nice young people are amazed when they see that it is not they who walk and spin and whirl the walking stick, but the other way round. And they don't put it in the corner, they themselves are placed there."

"Anyone who expresses views that are contrary to those of the rest of the company can be an interesting conversationalist. If he can prove and defend those views well, he gets the attention. It makes no difference whether he is right or wrong: it is either amusing or instructive."

"The law of improvement: I can't think of anyone who has said: - I want to be meaner than you are."

"I read the poster of a theatre in a rural town: Billeting Order (Antony Mars - Henri Kéroul), Ferdinand the Roisterer (Georges Berr), Inspector of the Red Cars (Alexandre Bisson), Moving Photographs, etc. At the end of the poster, the director asks the audience for patronage. Why? This is not even a domestic industry!"

"When you go to a woman whom your intellect judges not to be right for you, and yet you do depart, yet you go: you are a leashed animal."

"Painters and musicians are mostly nice people and superficial thinkers. They move around a lot in the world and so have a lot of life experience, but they are not good at talking about deep subjects because they read very little and so their knowledge is more an accumulation of individual experience than the intellectual store of humanity. If you come into contact with a painter or musician whose company is not pleasant, they are the easiest to get rid of. One has only to praise the work of a competitor before them."

"Man is a soul bound in leather."

"Music on Earth has a total of 7 octaves. There must be music in the other world. - How many octaves there? What is the infinity of sounds? What is only ten times seven octaves? Perhaps we can get an idea from the bass in the sky when we hear the thunder."

"Matches in the world order: Every living being is one being. Around it is the family. Around family is kinship. Around kinship is the nation. Around the nation, the other-speaking races. The order of the stars is the same. Our head of the family is the Sun. The suns are surely a group again. The group of suns is again the inner circle of a larger circle."

"What are the signs of spiritual awakening? Man learns that his hands are not he, his feet are not he, his ears are not he. Until now he did not identify himself only with his hair, now his sense of identity is separated from his limbs: The hand is only a plier and a percussion instrument. If it is cut off, neither my mind nor my memory is stunted. The leg is only a walking, lifting tool. Though nearly half of my body, if I lose it, my consciousness is not diminished, my spiritual talents are not diminished. But what kind of a carriage is it whose wheels can be lost, whose handlebars can break, and yet feel like a whole carriage? If some parts of my body can be lost without my soul lacking anything, it is certain that my stomach is not me, my lungs are not me, my eyes are not me, and my brain is not me. If one part of the body is an instrument, the other is an instrument. Meat, meat. Why should the brain marrow be an exception. The brain is just matter. And matter doesn't think. That's how we divide our knowledge and our feeling of what we are: Me and my body. But what am I and what is my body? I am a soul. And my body is flesh. I am the coachman, my body is the coach. The carriage is a prison! Why are we in this moving prison? We do not know. Our files are sealed and lying in unknown archives. Our memories are out there somewhere, like the old prisoner's old diary in the prison archives. Where is that archive? Where are the records? Where do they condemn us? Why? We'll find out when the keymaster comes for us."

"The dead writers have left us like the fairy maiden in the fairy tale, fleeing from the shepherd who finds her: On the meadow the diamond-encrusted silk veil remains..."

"The language has added the word royal to the decorative adjectives. Often we hear or read royal stature, royal dignity, royal collar, and the like. But it has never been said: - Royal mind."

"Love is always spiritual. Hate is always corporeal. Love is a source of light and warmth. Hate is darkness and coldness. In love we are gods. In hate we are animals."

"Don't bow to anyone just because he is richer or wealthier, - leave the bowing to the servants and those who have servant souls. But bow to the man, however poor, however ragged, whose deeds you may bow to."

"- I know that when I die I will cease to be! - Have you tried? - There is no God in heaven! - Have you been above the stars?"

"Never ask for a loan. Debt turns a man into dog. But if someone asks you, always give gladly, - if you can. Give especially to him whose eyes speak the plea of affliction, and who asks in shame. And do not regard such a man as a dog, but as a brother. On the contrary, never give to a gambler, to a show-off, to a drunkard, or to a flatterer. They are better turned away from you."

"A hundred people say: - Don't take her! An inner voice speaks: - Take her! Ignore the advice of a hundred people. And a thousand men say: - Take her! And the inner voice says: - Don't take her! Follow the advice of the inner voice."

"When a subject comes up that makes us uneasy, let us remember that the unspoken word is ours, the spoken word never belongs to us again."

"The body does not develop beyond 25 years. The soul is still developing at 60-70 years. The old age of the soul begins to show when the body is so paralysed that the brain is atrophied and the circulation of the blood is slowed down. But just because the glass of the photographer's camera is cloudy, the photographer is not. He'll get a new camera and a new glass."