Yet I also suspected that what I was seeing was but a part of the truth and perhaps not even the most important part; beneath these faces, these clothes, accents, rudenesses, was power and sorrow, both unadmitted, unrealized, the power of inventors, the sorrow of the disconnected.

To hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first . . . acceptance totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are [;] . . . the second . . . that one must never, in one's life, accept . . . injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one's strength.

You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.

Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.

If you really want to know something about solitude, become famous.