The modern world obliges us to refute foolish ideas, instead of silencing the fools.
Just as in our society the dregs of society triumph, so too in our literature the dregs of the soul triumph.
In order to cure the patient it injured in the 19th century,
industrial society had to numb his mind in the 20th century.
Spiritual misery is the price of industrial prosperity.
Nations have two noble modes of existence—ascent or decadence—and one vulgar mode—prosperity.
Material prosperity is less corrupting than the intellectual and moral prerequisites for achieving it.
Capitalism is abominable because it achieves that disgusting prosperity promised in vain by the socialism that hates it.
The enemies of the modern world, in the 19th century, could
trust in the future.
In this century there only remains bare nostalgia for the past.
Posterity is not going to understand what an achievement mere good sense is in this insane century.
The people with whom we speak every day and our favorite authors cannot belong to the same zoological species.
Intellectual vulgarity depresses me more than bad news.
To be right is just one more reason not to achieve any success.
Let us not give stupid opinions the pleasure of scandalizing us.
To think like our contemporaries is the prescription for prosperity and for stupidity.
Posterity is not going to understand what an achievement mere good sense is in this insane century.
Wisdom, in this century, consists above all in knowing how to put up with vulgarity without becoming upset.
An intelligent man is one who maintains his intelligence at a temperature independent of his environment’s temperature.