That's what children are for—that their parents may not be bored.

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

Death is like a fisherman, who, having caught a fish in his net, leaves it in the water for a time; the fish continues to swim about, but all the while the net is round it, and the fisherman will snatch it out in his own good time.

I'm through with Tolstoy. He has ceased to exist for me.... If I eat a bowl of soup and like it, I know by that fact alone and with absolute certainty that Tolstoy will find it bad, and vice versa.

Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there'll come a time when you'll start asking just for a crust.

You may live a long while with some people and be on friendly terms with them and never speak openly with them from your soul.

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