Thank you, darling, for learning to play chess. It is an absolute necessity for any well organized family. (in a letter to his wife)

Try to be forgotten. Go live in the country. Stay in mourning for two years, then remarry, but choose somebody decent.

I want to understand you, I study your obscure language.

I've lived to bury my desires and see my dreams corrode with rust now all that's left are fruitless fires that burn my empty heart to dust. Struck by the clouds of cruel fate My crown of Summer bloom is sere Alone and sad, I watch and wait And wonder if the end is near. As conquered by the last cold air When Winter whistles in the wind Alone upon a branch that's bare A trembling leaf is left behind.

Fearing no insult, asking for no crown, receive with indifference both flattery and slander, and do not argue with a fool.

My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?

It's a lucky man, a very lucky man, who is committed to what he believes, who has stifled intellectual detachment and can relax in the luxury of his emotions - like a tipsy traveller resting for the night at wayside inn.