If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.

That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you're truly a wise man.

You're beautiful, but you're empty...One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.

But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you.

The one thing that matters is the effort.

You're beautiful, but you're empty.... No one could die for you.

Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.