This morning it occurred to me for the first time that my body, my faithful companion and friend, truer and better known to me than my own soul, may be after all only a sly beast who will end by devouring his master.

Translating is writing.

The world is big … May it please the One who perchance is to expand the human heart to life's full measure.

Books are not life, only its ashes.

There are books which one should not attempt before having passed the age of forty.

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.

If you love life you also love the past, because it is the present as it has survived in memory." Translation by David Downie