Meditation upon death does not teach one how to die; it does not make the departure more easy, but ease is not what I seek. Beloved boy, so willful and brooding, your sacrifice will have enriched not my life but my death. ... Centuries as yet unborn within the dark womb of time would pass by thousands over that tomb without restoring life to him, but likewise without adding to his death, and without changing the fact that he had been.

Everything turns out to be valuable that one does for one’s self without thought of profit.

I have never seasoned a truth with the sauce of a lie in order to digest it more easily

No one understands eternity. One simply recognizes its existence.

Every hour has its immediate duty, its special injunction which dominates all others.

Do not mistake me. I am not yet weak enough to yield to fearful imaginings, which are almost as absurd as illusions of hope, and are certainly harder to bear. If I must deceive myself, I should prefer to stay on the side of confidence, for I shall lose no more there and shall suffer less.

The written word has taught me to listen to the human voice, much as the great unchanging statues have taught me to appreciate bodily motions.