La province est la province : elle est ridicule quand elle veut singer Paris.

To speak of reality becoming a spectacle is a breathtaking provincialism.

The Parisian bourgeoisie laugh at the bourgeoisie from a small town; the Court nobility mock the provincial nobility: the famous man scorns one who is unknown, without reflecting that time serves equal justice on their pretensions, and that they are all equally ridiculous or tedious in the eyes of succeeding generations.

There comes a time in the history of all bureaucracies when they must inevitably parody their own functions.

When in doubt, be ridiculous.

The people in Paris commonly ape the court, but they do not always know how to imitate it; they by no means resemble it in those agreeable and flattering outward civilities with which some courtiers, and particularly the ladies, affably treat a man of merit, who possesses nothing but merit.

Comedy, as we said, is an imitation of people of a lower sort, though not in respect to every vice; rather, what is ridiculous is part of what is ugly.

It is no accident that propels people like us to Paris. Paris is simply an artificial stage, a revolving stage that permits the spectator to glimpse all phases of the conflict. Of itself Paris initiates no dramas. They are begun elsewhere. Paris is simply an obstetrical instrument that tears the living embryo from the womb and puts it in the incubator. Paris is the cradle of artificial births. Rocking here in the cradle each one slips back into his soil; one dreams back to Berlin, New York, Chicago, Vienna, Minsk,. Vienna is never more Vienna than Paris. Everything is raised to its apotheosis. The cradle gives up its babes and new ones take their place. You can real here on the walls Zola lived and Balzac and Dante and Strindberg and everybody who ever was anything. Everyone has lived here some time or other. Nobody dies here. . .

Ce sont là jeux de prince:
On respecte un moulin: on vole une province.

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

Some people are only funny when they try to be serious.

Truth rides best In that which looks ridiculous.

It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.