Sometimes we behave as though there was something more important than life. But what?

People have stars, but they aren't the same. For travelers, the stars are guides. For other people, they're nothing but tiny lights. And for still others, for scholars, they're problems... But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you'll have stars like nobody else... since I'll be laughing on one of them, for you it'll be as if all the stars are laughing. You'll have stars that can laugh!... and it'll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh.

You do not explain the tree by telling of the water it has drunk, the minerals it has absorbed, and the sunlight that strengthened it.

One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times......You know...when one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets.

If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work; teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.

The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.

Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world.