The touch of time does more than the club of Hercules.

The desire to write perfectly of beautiful happenings is, as the saying runs, old as the hills — and as immortal.

Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.

The optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel, the realist sees a train entering the tunnel, the pessimist sees a train speeding at him, hell for leather, and the machinist sees three idiots sitting on the rail track. "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."

Good and evil keep very exact accounts... and the face of every man is their ledger.

While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.

I fear You and, yes, I love You: and yet I cannot believe. Why could You not let me believe, where so many believed? Or else, why could You not let me deride, as the remainder derided so noisily? O God, why could You not let me have faith? for You gave me no faith in anything, not even in nothingness. It was not fair.