The Lord had given them the day and the Lord had given them the strength. And the day and the strength had been dedicated to labor, and the labor was its reward. Who was the labor for? What would be its fruits? These were irrelevant and idle questions.

Everything intelligent is so boring.

He felt like a man who, after straining his eyes to peer into the remote distance, finds what he was seeking at his very feet. All his life he had been looking over the heads of those around him, while he had only to look before him without straining his eyes. p 1320

I did not myself know what I wanted: I feared life, desired to escape from it, yet still hoped something of it.

War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war.

Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised.

I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.