It was futile to attack with reason the stout wall of irrational feelings that, as is known, is the stuff of which the female mind is made.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty.

Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limit of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.

Which doesn't mean, of course, that I'd stopped loving her, that I'd forgotten her, or that her image had paled; on the contrary; in the form of a quiet nostalgia she remained constantly within me; I longed for her as one longs for something definitively lost.

How could she feel nostalgia when he was right in front of her? How can you suffer from the absence of a person who is present? You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more.

But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.