“We’re as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we’re not likely to do either.”

There is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.

Crying is you, plus tears.

Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.

What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.

The past feels distant, even when it’s near. The future feels assured, even when it isn’t.

Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me.

Maybe there is something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt because it matters.

It is so hard to leave, until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.

Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.

When you acknowledge that there is nothing repulsive or unforgivable or shameful about yourself, it becomes easier to be that authentic person and feel like you’re living a less performed life.

I don’t know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving.

I may die young, but at least I’ll die smart.

Your responsibility is not to the people you’re making the gift for, but the gift itself.

I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence

You can love someone so much but you can never love people as much as you can miss them.

You cannot invent an algorithm that is as good at recommending books as a good bookseller.

The help which tends to make us spiritually strong is the highest help, next to it comes intellectual help and after that comes physical help.

Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that. You never help one by talking about his fault; you do him an injury, and injure yourself as well.

I was always told to avoid being famous just for being famous. That’s something that has always stuck in my mind. I like to work. It helps if you like what you do.

If you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow.

Don’t be afraid to speak up, because someone will be there for you.

Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.

The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself.

We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.