That history should have imitated history was already sufficiently marvellous; that history should imitate literature is inconceivable....

The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all me…

What one man does is something done, in some measure, by all men. For that reason a disobedience committed in a garden contaminates the human race; for that re…

Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures. In one of them I am your enemy.

The 'Laforgue edition' (1826-1838), heavily rewritten and censored:

E o abade pancudo que a tardinha, a varanda, palita o dente furado saboreando o seu cafe com um ar paterno, traz dentro em si os indistintos restos dum Torquem…

At present, I am a poet trying to be a soldier. To tell the truth, I am not interested in writing nowadays, except in so far as writing is the expression of so…