Everyone once, once only. Just once and no more. And we also once. Never again. But this having been once, although only once, to have been of the earth, seems irrevocable.

There may be good, but there are no pleasant marriages.

sometimes a man stands up during supper and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking, because of a church that stands somewhere in the East. And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead. And another man, who remains inside his own house, stays there, inside the dishes and in the glasses, so that his children have to go far out into the world toward that same church, which he forgot.

Somewhere there is an ancient enmity between our daily life and the great work. Help me in saying it, to understand it.

Embrace your solitude and love it. Endure the pain it causes, and try to sing out with it. For those near to you are distant.

If only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.

I am so glad you are here. It helps me realize how beautiful my world is.