At bottom there is but one subject of study: the forms and metamorphoses of mind. All other subjects may be reduced to that; all other studies bring us back to this study.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

A library is a hospital for the mind.

Desire wills its perpetuation ad infinitum.

There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit, I can, because I'm the Earth. I won't give up until the Earth gives up.

I know what my job is. I know what I've got to do. I've got to keep getting better.

I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses.

I am not unique in my elegiac sadness at watching reading die, in the era that celebrates Stephen King and J.K. Rowling rather than Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll.

When I’m with you, I could drink water and be full.

Who is the architect? I am the architect.

Like any of life's refining fires, cancer is a potentially profound learning experience. So what did I learn? I learned that profound learning experiences are vastly overrated.