Jeronimo, my grandfather, swine-herder and story-teller, feeling death about to arrive and take him, went and said goodbye to the trees in the yard, one by one, embracing them and crying because he knew he wouldn't see them again. To truly appreciate life we must remember that nothing lasts for ever and take nothing we enjoy for granted. In so doing we stay grateful and happy for all our good fortune.

Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.

If you don't write your books, nobody else will do it for you. No one else has lived your life.

Words that come from the heart are never spoken, they get caught in the throat and can only be read in ones's eyes.

There are such moments in life, when, in order for heaven to open, it is necessary for a door to close.

I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.

Will we ever learn that certain things can be understood only if we take the trouble to trace them to their origins.