What we have not had to decipher, to elucidate by our own efforts, what was clear before we looked at it, is not ours. From ourselves comes only that which we drag forth from the obscurity which lies within us, that which to others is unknown.

The time at our disposal each day is elastic; the passions we feel dilate it, those that inspire us shrink it, and habit fills it.

We can only be faithful to what we remember, and we remember only what we have known.

When I went to Venice I found that my dream had become-incredibly, but quite simply-my address.

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.

May you always see a blue sky overhead, my young friend; and then, even when the time comes, as it has come for me now, when the woods are black, when night is fast falling, you will be able to console yourself, as I do, by looking up at the sky.

Adultery breathes new life into marriages which have been left for dead.