A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.

to be understood is not a human right. Even to understand oneself is not a human right.

All our failures are ultimately failures in love.

To lose somebody is to lose not only their person but all those modes and manifestations into which their person has flowed outwards; so that in losing a beloved one may find so many things, pictures, poems, melodies, places lost too: Dante, Avignon, a song of Shakespeare's, the Cornish sea.

He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life and never managed to get out.

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats, and if some of these can be inexpensive and quickly procured so much the better.

Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port.