With women who do not love us, as with the "dear departed, " the knowledge that there is no hope left does not prevent us from continuing to wait.

...but the loss of a memory, like the omission of a phrase during reading, rather than making for uncertainty, can lead to a premature certainty.

It is a mistake, " Labruyère tells us, "to be in love without an ample fortune.

M. de Charlus persisted in not replying. I thought I could see a smile flicker about his lips: the smile of the man who looks down from a great height on the characters and manners of lesser men.

...for each of us sees clarity only in those ideas which have the same degree of confusion as his own.

We imagine always when we speak that it is our own ears, our own mind, that are listening.

Was the happiness of knowing these girls really unattainable? It would certainly not have been the first happiness of that sort which I had abandoned all hope of ever enjoying?

The true philosopher is a man who says "All right, " and goes to sleep in his armchair.

You are a victim only when you have decided to play the part.

Goodness makes our world a better place because human beings are kinder to each other when we feel safe and secure.

Be willing to launch in faith, with no guarantees of success. This is the mark of personal greatness

When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something.

Members of the Academy are mostly urban people. We are an urban nation. We are not a rural nation. It's not easy even to get a rural story made.

I make films and do the publicity and interviews, but then I want to get away from it all and be on my own.

I burn a lot of stuff. My son, bless his heart, eats it anyway. But he makes a face!

God knows His own. It is well that He does, for sometimes it would be difficult for us to determine who are His!

Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness.