XIV
One must work, if not through desire, at least in despair, since, as is well established, to work is less boring than to seek amusement.
XV
There are in every man, at every moment, two simultaneous postulations, one toward God, the other toward Satan.
The invocation of God, or spirituality, is a desire to rise; that of Satan, or bestiality, is a joy in descent. To the latter should be attributed love for women.
The joys which spring from these two loves conform to their two natures.
XVI
Intoxication of humanity; great picture to be made, in the sense of charity, in the sense of libertinage, in the literary or dramaturgic sense.