Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality.

Sensuality is the total mobilization of the senses: an individual observes his partner intently, straining to catch every sound.

The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.

a man possessed with peace is always smiling

Pain doesn't listen to reason, it has it's own reason, which is not reasonable

There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact. In the course of a single second, our senses of sight, of hearing, of smell, register (knowingly or not) a swarm of events and a parade of sensations and ideas passes through our head. Each instant represents a little universe, irrevocably forgotten in the next instant.

When his wife was at his side, she was also in front of him, marking out the horizon of his life. Now the horizon is empty: the view has changed.