Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

The river taught us how to listen with a silent heart, with a waiting open soul.

You should never be afraid of people... such fear can destroy us completely. You've simply got to get rid of it, if you want to turn into someone decent. You understand that, don't you?

When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.

For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.

Friendship is identification and difference

Painting is marvelous; it makes you happier and more patient. Afterwards you do not have black fingers as with writing, but blue and red ones.