Maxims

..... § To have sure and definite opinions, instincts, passions, and a dependable, recognizable character – all of this leads to the horror of transforming our soul into a fact, into a material and external thing. To live in a sweet, fluid state of ignorance about things and about oneself is the only lifestyle that suits a wise man and makes him warm.

..... §To be adept at constantly standing between ourselves and external things is the highest degree of wisdom and prudence.

..... §Our personality should be inscrutable, even to ourselves. That’s why we should always dream, making sure that we’re included in our dreams so that we won’t be able to have opinions about ourselves. And we should especially protect our personality against being invaded by others. All outside interest in us is a flagrant disrespect. What saves the banal greeting ‘How are you?’ from being an inexcusable vulgarity is the fact that it’s usually completely empty and insincere.

..... §To love is to tire of being alone; it is therefore a cowardice, a betrayal of ourselves. (It’s exceedingly important that we not love.)

..... §To give good advice is to disdain the faculty of erring that God gave to others. Not only that, we should be glad that other people don’t act like us. It makes sense only to ask for advice from others, so that we can be sure – by doing just the opposite – that we are totally ourselves, in complete disagreement with all Otherness.

..... §The only advantage of studying is to take delight in all the things that other people haven’t said.

..... §Art is an isolation. Every artist should seek to isolate others, to fill their souls with a desire to be alone. The supreme triumph for the artist who writes is when his readers, on reading his works, prefer just to have them and not read them. This doesn’t necessarily happen to celebrated writers, but it is the greatest tribute.....

..... §To be lucid is to be out of sorts with oneself. The right state of mind for looking inside ourselves is that ..... of someone looking at nerves and indecisions.

..... §The only intellectual attitude worthy of a superior creature is that of a calm and cold compassion for everything that isn’t himself. Not that this attitude has a grain of legitimacy or truth, but it’s so enviable that he must adopt it.