Never for a moment be deprived of wine, for it is wine
that gives reflection to intelligence, to the heart of man
and to religion. If the devil had tasted it for one instant,
he would have adored Adam and have made before
him thousands of genuflections.
Arise, dance, and we shall clap our hands. Drink to
the presence of beauties with the languorous eyes of the
narcissus. Happiness is not very great when one has
emptied but a score of cups; it is strangely complete
when one arrives at the sixtieth.
I have shut upon myself the door of avarice, and am
thus free from obligation to those who are men and those
who do not merit the name. Since there exists but one
friend [God] toward whom I can extend my hand, I am
what I am, and that concerns only Him and me.
I am constantly saddened by the motion of this Wheel
of the Heavens. I am in revolt against my vile nature.
I have neither enough knowledge to hide myself and not
return to the world, nor intelligence enough to live there
without preoccupying myself with it.
How many people that I see upon the surface of the
earth are plunged in sleep [superstition]! How many I
perceive that are already buried in its depths! When I
throw my eyes over this desert of Not-being, how many
people I see who have not yet come—how many who
have already departed!