A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.

I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.

Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

In the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and, sooner or later, it takes what belongs to it. Unconsciously and inflexibly obedient to its own laws, it doesn't know art, just as it doesn't know freedom, just as it doesn't know goodness.

Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.

Ah, but in time the heat of noontide passes, and to it there succeed nightfall and dusk, with a return to the quiet fold where for the weary an the heavy-laden there waits sleep, sweet sleep.

To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.