Always guarding one's real, precious self in a cocoon of tranquility within a thousand masks. Life itself had become a secret affair.

A sunrise or sunset can be ablaze with brilliance and arouse all the passion, all the yearning, in the soul of the beholder.

Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives.

There is no happily-ever-after to run to. We have to work for happiness.

Nothing is permanently perfect. But there are perfect moments and the will to choose what will bring about more perfect moments.

Perhaps she was just looking for love in the wrong places. In all the safe places. What if love was not safe at all?

And she was terribly aware that she was alive. Not just living and breathing, but ...alive.

I prefer to believe the opposite - that there is always an indestructible beauty at the heart of darkness.

The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself.

The bad part is life continues. The good part is that the pain goes away.

Have you noticed," she asked him, "how we live much of our lives in the past and most of the rest of it in the future? Have you noticed how often the present moment slips by quiet unnoticed?

if a book isn't self-explanatory, then it isn't worth reading.

Ruexner chuckled and put away his knife. Gisela kept her eyes on Valten. Even though her bottom lip trembled, she still looked like the bravest woman he had ever seen.

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.

I don't really like the spotlight.

Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive.

The treachery of a friend is worse than that of a foe.

No sensible person ever opens the door of his house without knowing who is knocking.

Vermeer's woman reading a letter is as full of latent or subliminal kitsch as Tolstoy's War and Peace.

In designing hardware to be used every day, it was important to keep both the human aspects and the machine in mind. What looks good also often feels good

People like Bill Maher, who brags about being a cynic, it sickens me. I am the least cynical person I know, and I am very, very skeptical.