I feel that I have had a blow; but it is not, as I thought as a child, simply a blow from an enemy hidden behind the cotton wool of daily life; it is or will become a revelation of some order; it is a token of some real thing behind appearances; and I make it real by putting it into words. It is only by putting it into words that I make it whole; this wholeness means that it has lost its power to hurt me; it gives me, perhaps because by doing so I take away the pain, a great delight to put the severed parts together.

I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you're everything that exists; the reality of everything.

I am volatile for one, rigid for another, angular as an icicle in silver, or voluptuous as a candle flame in gold.

The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.

The mind must be allowed to settle undisturbed over the object in order to secrete the pearl.

How remorseless life is!

The connection between dress and war is not far to seek; your finest clothes are those you wear as soldiers.