Some men are by nature explorers; my nature is to stay under the same moon and stars, and if the weather is wet, under the same roof. It's a strange world, why make it stranger?

Nationality isn't soul.

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.

I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer - he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.

Completed, most lives were alike in stages of living-joys, celebrations, crises, illusions, losses, sorrows.

(Clothes) cannot change a man's nature. He's either kind or he isn't, with or without clothes.

We're persecuted in the most civilized languages.