It is remarkable indeed how we human beings are capable of delighting in the mating call of a flower while we are surrounded by the charred carcasses of our fellow animals.

I did not grow up in poverty. But I did grow up with a poor boy's sense of longing, in my case not for what my family had never had, but for what we had had and lost.

Our relationship could now thrive only in my head, and to discuss it with a mother intent—admittedly in my own best interest—on challenging it with reality might do it irreparable harm.

...status, as in any traditional, class-conscious society, declines more slowly than wealth.

one's rules of propriety make one thirst for the improper.

Curiosity is a call from knowledge.

Art always penetrates the particular fissures in one's psychic life.

15

The proper conceptual view is attained only through introspection.

A nation forgetting its own laughter is in a sad state of affairs

The stone you took away from a beach will long for that beach because it belongs there!

If you have fun and keep a good attitude, people want to work with you.

It seems to be that loneliness is a small price to pay for peace and quiet.

The bad thing about falling into pieces is that it hurts. The good thing about it is that once you're lying there in shards you've got nothing left to protect, and so have no reason not to be honest

Don't make a habit out of choosing what feels good over what's actually good for you.