The first demand any work of art makes upon us is to surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.

Pain is G-d's megaphone to wake up the world.

‎"Don't bother too much about your feelings. When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them; when they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered. In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you. What matters is your intentions and your behavior

I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, hoever, turns out to be not a state but a process.

The surest way of spoiling a pleasure [is] to start examining your satisfaction.

A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.

..(T)here are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.