I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things...it made them less than men; and I wrote ferociously that we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Love is not always blind and there are few things that cause greater wretchedness than to love with all your heart someone who you know is unworthy of love.

I [Death] was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

When married people don't get on they can separate, but if they're not married it's impossible. It's a tie that only death can sever.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.

Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure.