“Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now.”

Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them.

Love ever unsatisfied, lives always in the moment that is about to come.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Like many intellectuals, he was incapable of saying a simple thing in a simple way.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint, it is because we ourselves are dying.

We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.

To write that essential book, a great writer does not need to invent it but merely to translate it, since it already exists in each one of us. The duty and task of a writer are those of translator.

Only by art can we get outside ourselves, instead of seeing only one world, our own, we see it under multiple forms.

Just as those who practice the same profession recognize each other instinctively, so do those who practice the same vice.

Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade.

People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground.

It is often hard to bear the tears that we ourselves have caused.

The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.

If we are to make reality endurable, we must all nourish a fantasy or two.

We think and name in one world, we live and feel in another.

I think as you grow up, you realize you have obligations just in your life – being a citizen, being part of humanity – to help other people, to help your country, to help the world.

I never want to look back on life and say I wish I did something, and I don’t want anybody else to do that.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

Instead of thinking about work the next day or thinking about what you have to do, if you live in the moment you’ll have some of the best times of your life.

Life is not a fist. Life is an open hand waiting for some other hand to enter it.

Remember that, however patient your study, you will never in adult life learn any language perfectly; the best you can hope for is to be a bore.

When life is hard it’s easy to focus only on the bad things and forget all about the good things God has given us. But God has blessed every one of us in ways we often overlook.

Even though negativity begs for my attention, I will still choose to focus on the joy in my life.