Doctors are mostly impostors. The older a doctor is and the more venerated he is, the more he must pretend to know everything. Of course, they grow worse with time. Always look for a doctor who is hated by the best doctors. Always seek out a bright young doctor before he comes down with nonsense.

[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise.

Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but theremay never be two that love one another equally well.

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

But there comes a time in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among human beings or nota fool among fools or a fool alone.