“Why, Milena, do you write about our common future which will never be, or is it that why you write about it? (…) Few things are certain, but one is that we’ll never live together, share an apartment, body to body, at a common table, never, not even in the same city. (…) Incidentally, Milena, you must agree when you examine yourself and me and take soundings of the “sea” between “Vienna” and “Prague” with its insurmountably high waves.” (Prague, September 1920) Letters To Milena

The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance. A Tale of Two Cities

Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. Candide

For sight is woman-like and shuns the old. Ah! he can see enough, when years are told, Who backwards looks. Eviradnus