It requires self-esteem to receive-not self-love but just a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself.

Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.

There is more beauty in truth, even if it is a dreadful beauty. The storytellers at the city gate twist life so that it looks sweet to the lazy and the stupid and the weak, and this only strengthens their infirmities and teaches nothing, cures nothing, nor does it let the heart soar.

I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now--only that place where the books are kept.

Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.

A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shadows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.

If you are in love-that's a good thing-that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone.