Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes.

In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.

The passions are the same in every conflict, large or small.

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

Events are called inevitable only after they have occurred.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

In love, we worry more about the meaning of silences than the meaning of words.

To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.

Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money.

General statements omit what we really want to know. Example: some horses run faster than others.

Young men preen. Old men scheme.

Art seduces, but does not exploit.

Rereading, we find a new book.

First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory.

Old age: I fall asleep during the funerals of my friends.

Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life.

Other people's beliefs may be myths, but not mine.

The higher the moral tone, the more suspect the speaker.

Worried about being a dull fellow? You might develop your talent for being irritating.

Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy.

Hatred of the mother is familiar, but the mother's hatred still comes as a surprise.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

The discontented believe that their regrets are about the past.

Lying just for the fun of it is either art or pathology.