Here, beside this great black surface that is my desk, I feel as though I am on a desert island.

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.

One must also accept that one has 'uncreative' moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.

I keep remembering from my early student days how I would walk at night through the streets, my hands bunched into fists in the pocket of my coat, my head hunched deep into my collar, and how I used to say, 'I want to work, I shall work'--and then I would come back home and be so exhausted by my determination that I had no strength left to do the actual work.

How rash to assert that man shapes his own destiny. All he can do is determine his inner responses.

Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.

Most people write off their longing for friends and family as so many losses in their lives, when they should count the fact that their heart is able to long so hard and to love so much as among their greatest blessings.