Grief. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal.

Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.

Aren't all these notes the senseless writings of a man who won't accept the fact that there is nothing we can do with suffering except to suffer it?

There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.

Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. (And) There is no sense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Righ and Wrong are.

I cannot understand how a man can appear in print claiming to disbelieve everything that he presupposes when he puts on the surplice. I feel it is a form of prostitution.