True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.

A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there - that of the pulse, the heart beat.

I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: The world of art is the only such realm.

Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.

Giving and receiving are at bottom one thing, dependent on whether one lives open or closed. Living openly one becomes a medium, a transmitter; living thus, as a river, one experiences life to the full, flows along with the current of life, and dies in order to live again as an ocean.

The smile was so painfully swift and fleeting that it was like the flash of a knife.

When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently.