“The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong.”

A scientist’s life, the author says, is indeed conflictual, formed by battles, defeats, and victories: but the adversary is always and only the unknown.

More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.

For he who loses all often easily loses himself.

If it is true that there is no greater sorrow than to remember a happy time in a state of misery, it is just as true that calling up a moment of anguish in a tranquil mood, seated quietly at one’s desk, is a source of profound satisfaction.

The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.

A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.

If a writer is convinced that he is honest, then it is very difficult for him to be a bad writer.

We who survived the Camps are not true witnesses.

It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.

My number is 174517; we have been baptized, we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die.

Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument.

To accuse another of having weak kidneys, lungs, or heart, is not a crime; on the contrary, saying he has a weak brain is a crime.

The butterfly’s attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it.

Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.

An enemy who sees the error of his ways ceases to be an enemy.

Everybody is somebody’s Jew.

As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.

Walk out, he repeated. We need to talk. About how you need to sacrifice me to get a human body? I asked, my tone light, my insides feeling leaden. That might be cute if you thought it was true.

If you can’t feel then why did you kiss me? Because i can feel it here, in my heart.

Right now, holding you, i feel like we have a shot at beating all odds and making it together.

I feel like I’m on an anthropological mission.

I feel like there is a part of me that represents a minority in the U.S., a minority around the world. People who struggle, people who want to succeed with drive and ambition.

If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.

When I fall in love, I feel more valuable and I treat myself with more care. We have all observed the hesitant adolescent, uncertain of himself, who, when he or she falls in love, suddenly walks with a certain inner assuredness and confidence/