Man in general, if reduced to himself, is too wicked to be free.

I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

Genius is a grace. The true man of genius acts by movement or by impulsion.

It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.

I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.