“What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it.”

We should enjoy this summer, flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one we’ll see.

Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

I can’t expect others to share my virtues. It’s good enough for me if they share my vices.

But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

Every instant of our lives is essentially irreplaceable: you must know this in order to concentrate on life.

I wished for nothing beyond her smile, and to walk with her thus, hand in hand, along a sun warmed, flower bordered path.

There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.

The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

Only fools don’t contradict themselves.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

Prejudices are the props of civilization.

Wisdom comes not from reason but from love.

Art begins with resistance – at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

Please do not understand me too quickly.