“A woman should be able to kiss a man beautifully and romantically without any desire to be either his wife or his mistress.”

Intelligence is measured by a person’s ability to see validity within both sides of contradicting arguments.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

No matter how low you go, there’s always an unexplored basement.

Before you criticize others, remember, they may not have had the same opportunities in life as you have had.

Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.

For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be.

I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

Life is so damned hard, so damned hard… It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can’t be hurt ever any more. That’s the last and worst thing it does.

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

You are the loveliest thing that I have ever known.

The ability to hold two competing thoughts in one’s mind and still be able to function is the mark of a superior mind

Long ago, there was something in me, but now that thing is gone. Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

Actually that’s my secret — I can’t even talk about you to anybody because I don’t want any more people to know how wonderful you are.

For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.

Do not follow vain desires; for verily he who prospers is preserved from lust, greed and anger.

With attachment all that seems to exist is just me & that object I desire.

In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world, how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

Whatever can be taken away from a lasting enjoyment for its own sake cannot possibly be the proper object of desire.

The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.

Thus do we wish as we float down the stream of life, whilst chance does more to gratify our desire for knowledge than our best-laid plans.

To desire is to obtain to aspire is to achieve.

Revolutionary action more often than not was a theatrical concession to the desires of violently discontented masses rather than an actual battle for power.