And why is it, thought Lara, that my fate is to see everything and take it all so much to heart?

I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.

When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.

Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life.

The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age. To his orthodox contemporaries he seems a semi-madman.

To be a woman is a great adventure; To drive men mad is a heroic thing.

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.

In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.

All mothers are mothers of great people, and it is not their fault that life later disappoints them.

The worldly life is constantly ablaze. To keep expectation, that it will extinguish, is wrong. So then we too should say to it, ‘you can keep on burning!

I'm sorry for breaking down when I should've been stitching myself back up

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Failing to plan means planning to fail. What are your goals?

Sometimes staying strong means not putting yourself in uncomfortable or triggering situations.

Love them for who they are, and what they are they are; they are not you. Good stuff, isn't it? You have to live 73 years to get that.

I don't trust anyone who wouldn't.

Liberal Doctrine: it is not children who misbehave, but parents.

Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're sleepy.

In theory, taxes should be like shopping. What I buy is government services. What I pay are my taxes.