A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night.

Writer speaks a stench.

My grandfather used to say: Life is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that -not to mention accidents- even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey.

It would be very unjust to say that you deserted me, but that I was deserted, and sometimes terribly so, is true.

Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old.

My 'fear' is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.