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

The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools.

For my part I have sought liberty more than power, and power only because it can lead to freedom. What interested me was not a philosophy of the free man (all who try that have proved tiresome), but a technique: I hoped to discover the hinge where our will meets and moves with destiny, and where discipline strengthens, instead of restraining, our nature.

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

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.

Leaving behind books is even more beautiful — there are far too many children.

This city belongs to ghosts, to murderers, to sleepwalkers. Where are you, in what bed, in what dream?