What did I hope for, what did I expect, what rich future did I foresee, when the phantom of my first love, rising up for an instant, barely called forth one sigh, one mournful sentiment?

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.

I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.

We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars.

Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have far to go, either.

Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.

Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.

Time, as is well known, sometimes flies like a bird and sometimes crawls like a worm, but human beings are generally particularly happy when they don't notice whether it's passing quickly or slowly.

Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

Nothing is worse and more hurtful than a happiness that comes too late.

Take what you can yourself, and don't let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.

Great joy comes from God.

The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace, The prurient ape's defiling touch: And do you like the human race? No, not much.

No part of you is dark or ugly,' I said sharply, squeezing his hand. 'Not to me, not ever. Do you understand?

The thing that bothers me the most about the media is simple accuracy.

Families are the compass that guide us.

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

I don't eat celery. I eat raw milk, cheeses.

Human beings are at their core defined by what they worship rather than primarily by what they think, know, or believe. That is bound up with the central Augustinian claim that we are what we love.

The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one.

I am a woman, I am a housewife, I am a government official, I've been twice a government secretary, I've been leader of a parliamentary group, I am an economist.