I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything.

Absolute nakedness was intrusive, confusing to the senses. Paradoxically, it both revealed and diminished identity.

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.

I wonder if childhood is ever really happy. Just as well, perhaps. To be blissfully happy so young would leave one always seeking to recapture the unobtainable. Like those people who were always happiest at school or university. Always going back. No reunion ever missed. It always seemed to me rather pathetic.

Man is diminished if he lives without knowledge of his past; without hope of a future he becomes a beast.