History, like a vast river, propels logs, vegetation, rafts, and debris; it is full of live and dead things, some destined for resurrection; it mingles many waters and holds in solution invisible substances stolen from distant soils.

It is always some illusion that creates disillusion, especially in the young, for whom the only alternative to perfection is cynicism.

By the time I was 9, I had the conviction that everybody in the world was an artist except plumbers or people who delivered groceries.

After being boxed in by man and his constructions in Europe and the East, the release into space is exhilarating. The horizon is a huge remote circle, and no hills intervene.

Of course, clothing fashions have always been impractical, except in Tahiti.

Schools are not intended to moralize a wicked world, but to impart knowledge and develop intelligence, with only two social aims in mind: prepare to take on one's share in the world's work, and perhaps in addition, lend a hand in improving society, after schooling is done.

Simple English is no one’s mother tongue. It has to be worked for.