The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to be lost. A man who seeing his mother starving to death on a path kicks her in the stomach to clear the way, will cheerfully devote several hours of his time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost.

Books are the best friends you can have; they inform you, and entertain you, and they don't talk back.

My own journey started long before I left, and was over before I returned.

And her joy was nearly like sorrow.

People are felt rather than seen after the first few moments.

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse.

When you know a friend is there you do not go to see him. Then he's gone and you blast your conscience to shreds that you did not see him.