Often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them.

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

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

our friendship has no other purpose, no other reason, than to show you how utterly unlike me you are.

I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?

I suddenly saw how sad and artificial my life had been during this period, for the loves, friends, habits and pleasures of these years were discarded like badly fitting clothes. I parted from them without pain and all that remained was to wonder that I could have endured them so long.

A girl had bidden me eat and drink and sleep, and had shown me friendship and had laughed at me and had called me a silly little boy. And this wonderful friend had talked to me of the saints and shown me that even when I had outdone myself in absurdity I was not alone.