The hardest thing we are asked to do in this world is to remain aware of suffering, suffering about which we can do nothing.

Excellence costs a great deal.

Solitude is my element, and the reason is that extreme awareness of other people... precludes awareness of one's self so that after a while the self no longer knows that it exists.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

The tragic thing about learning from experience is I fear that one can only learn from one's own experience. Other people's - other nations' - experiences simply do not help. They can be imaginatively learned from. But people do not act on other people's experiences.

The price of being oneself is so high and involves so much ruthlessness toward others (or what looks like ruthlessness in our duty-bound culture) that very few people can afford it.

Innocence is not pure so much as pleased, Always expectant, bright-eyed, self-enclosed