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.

I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seed every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss, it is adding to future life. It is the tree's way of being. Strongly rooted perhaps, but spilling out its treasure on the wind.

In the country of pain we are each alone.

True feeling justifies whatever it may cost.

People are always talking about the joys of youth-but, oh, how youth can suffer!

Fire is a good companion for the mind.

Family life! The United Nations is child's play compared to the tugs and splits and need to understand and forgive in any family.