"If at first you don't succeed, why go on and make a fool of yourself?"

"Dictators long ago found out it is easier to unite people in common hatred than common love."

"Be eager to fulfill the smallest duty and flee from transgression for one duty includes another and one transgression induces another transgression."

"Good humor is a paradox. The unexpected juxtaposition of the reasonable next to the unreasonable."

"A girl can't analyze marriage, and a woman dare not."

"Mine is the poverty of angels. I just don't give a damn about possessions and the like... What need have I for objects and luxury? I write, and that's enough."

"A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all."

"To be possessed is an admirable reason for possessing."

"You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can see the whole trip that way."

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations."

"Geschichte ist [...] ein Dialog zwischen Gegenwart und Vergangenheit. [re-transl.:] History is [...] a dialogue between the present and the past."

"A man ought to be able to be fond of his wife without making a fool of himself about her."