You know Balbec so well - do you have friends in the area?' I have friends wherever there are companies of trees, wounded but not vanquished, which huddle together with touching obstinacy to implore an inclement and pitiless sky.' That is not what I meant,' interrupted my father, as obstinate as the trees and as pitiless as the sky.

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 stellar universe is not so difficult to understand as the real actions of other people, especially of the people with whom we are in love.

It is often hard to bear the tears that we ourselves have caused.

The only possible paradises are those we have lost

Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.

Now are the woods all black, But still the sky is blue.