Panta rei, ouden menei.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

How can I tell what I think until I see what I say?

Sunt lacrimae rerum.

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

He who follows another will never overtake him. Said Michelangelo.

A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. Said Russell.

On the tomb of Esteban Murillo in Seville: Vive moriturus. Live as though about to die.

The nature of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later. Said Louis Aragon.

He who has money is wise. And handsome. And can sing well also. Says a Yiddish proverb.

A lament of Schopenhauer’s: Over how frequently the mere purchase of a book is mistaken for the appropriation of its contents.

I have never been surprised to find men wicked, but I have often been surprised to find them not ashamed. Said Swift.

That man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust. Says a Flaubert letter.

The central railway-station platform of destinies. Blaise Cendrars called early twentieth-century Bohemian Paris.

All cats are grey in the dark.

Reality is under no obligation to be interesting. Said Borges.

The measure of a man’s greatness would be in terms of what his work cost him. Wittgenstein once told someone.

Mr. Churchill, you are drunk. And you, Madame, are ugly. But I shall be sober tomorrow.

Reading a book in translation: Like gazing at a Flemish tapestry with the wrong side turned out, said Cervantes.

Traduttore, traditore — translator, traitor, the Italian has it.

Like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed. Says an Anthony Powell character about growing old.

Ancora imparo, said Michelangelo at eighty-seven. Still, I’m learning.

Admire a small ship, but put your cargo in a large one. Hesiod said.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.