“Seize from every moment its unique novelty and do not prepare your joys.”

Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity.

Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

Profound optimism is always on the side of the tortured.

Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.

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.

You can make my chest swell with joy and cave with pain but peace is something I taught myself. Chest swelling chest caving with each new breath of fresh air.

It all seemed a hollow sham now – that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she’d had enough of that; she wanted to live!

This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected–in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life.

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

When you let me touch your skin, I can feel your pain. What joy you get in keeping me away?

People are part of my music. A lot of my songs are the result of emotional experiences, sadness, pain, joy, and exultation in nature and sunshine and so on…like ‘California Girls’ which was a hymn to youth.

I don’t have joy in watching myself, whereas, actually, I quite like listening to my own music.

Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.