No one understands eternity. One simply recognizes its existence.

the press is too often a distorting mirror, which deforms the people and events it represents, making them seem bigger or smaller than they really are.

Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has.

Any truth creates a scandal.

Every life is punctuated by deaths and departures, and each one causes great suffering that it is better to endure rather than forgo the pleasure of having known the person who has passed away. Somehow our world rebuilds itself after every death, and in any case we know that none of us will last forever. So you might say that life and death lead us by the hand, firmly but tenderly.

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.

I believe that friendship, like love, of which it is a particular kind, requires nearly as much art as a successful choreography.