To understand a profound thought is to have, at the moment one understands it, a profound thought oneself; and this demands some effort, a genuine descent to the heart of oneself . . . Only desire and love give us the strength to make this effort. The only books that we truly absorb are those we read with real appetite, after having worked hard to get them, so great had been our need of them.

Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments.

The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.

Everything that seems imperishable tends to extinguishment.

The one thing more difficult than following a regime is keeping from imposing it on others.

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. We have not managed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us past it, and then if we turn round to gaze at the remote past, we can barely catch sight of it, so imperceptible has it become.

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.