Whoever reflects on four things I would be better if he were never born: that which is above, that which is below, that which is before, that which is after.

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot.

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

Absence is to love as wind is to fire: it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.

There are four types: the cretin, the imbecile, the stupid and the mad. Normality is a balanced mixture of all four.

I love the smell of book ink in the morning.

To survive, you must tell stories.

But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

The gift of being able to speak with a holy God because of the righteousness we gain through Jesus on the cross is an indescribable miracle!

Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.

Never underestimate the lingering effects of a dash of spontaneous comfort.

He didn't know that sometimes, the most awesome and complicated thing you can do is just stick around.

Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing.

I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, that no honest love could come to me.

I've always been sensible with my money. I can't say I'm a business genius.

When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.

Remember that what you have is unique because it's your own special way of looking at the world.

The workmanship was better than the subject matter.