But learning-time is always a long, secluded time, and so loving, for a long while ahead and far on into life, is-solitude, intensified and deepened loneness for him who loves.

I think of you often, dear, and with such concentrated wishes that it really must help you in some way.

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.

The most visible joy can only reveal itself to us when we've transformed it, within.

Nearly everything that matters is a challenge, and everything matters.

Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings.

Avoid providing material for the drama that is always stretched tight between parents and children; it uses up much of the children’s strength and wastes the love of the elders, which acts and warms even if it doesn’t comprehend. Don’t ask for advice from them and don’t expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is strength and blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.