To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.

Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.

It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in his career an appalling patience, a willingness to wait and to do his best now in the expectation that next year he will do better.

There is one thing we can do, and the happiest of people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present.

To fail to love is not to exist at all.

The art of reading is the art of adopting the pace the author has set. Some books are fast and some are slow, but no book can be understood if it is taken at the wrong speed.

Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.