Wonder begets culture, which begets yet more wonder, and the end of wonder is wisdom, which is the state of perpetual wonder.
Our life is just as long or short as our remembering: as rich as our imagining, as vibrant as our feeling, and as profound as our thinking.
Love, like madness, can only fill the models that society makes available.
The problem with studying is that it gets in the way of education.
My basic political principle: If something, whether right- or left-wing, is driven by love and solidarity, it is right; if it is driven by hate and fear it is wrong. Simple as that.
Love is like chickenpox. It’s much worse when it comes late.
An artist is someone who, needing nothing and no one, wants everything and everyone.
It is no coincidence that, on all four sides, in all four corners, the borders of the Roman Empire stopped where wine could no longer be made.
One needs to be either more brave or more good, because if courage is lacking goodness can substitute, while cowardice is the deficiency of both.
The irony is, nothing is more frightening than being frightened.
Depression: the healthy suspicion that modern life has no meaning and that modern society is absurd and alienating.
Loneliness is the manifestation of the conflict between our desire for meaning and the absence of objective meaning from the universe.
Solitude, the joy of being alone, stems from, as well as promotes, a state of maturity and inner richness.
The three most powerful seasonings are hunger, variety, and gratitude.
If you say it very softly, with a smile, you can get away with saying almost anything, even the truth.
There are essentially three types of people: those who love life more than they fear it, those who fear life more than they love it, and those who have no clue what I’m talking about.
When we stop noticing small things, we are no longer truly alive.
Depression is our way of telling ourselves that something is seriously wrong and needs working through and changing.
No one ever pays to learn the most important things.
A man is rich not only by what he has, but also, and above all, by what he doesn’t.
It takes ten good decisions to make up for one disastrous one. This is why it is better not to make nine good decisions than to make one bad one—which is what happens most of the time.
The two greatest warriors are Truth and Time. Be sure to march behind, and not against, them.
A writer is someone who, needing nothing and no one, wants everything and everyone.
Man is mostly a collection of emotions, most of which he would do better not to be feeling.
Xenophobia is when you smile at people and they don’t smile back.
Man cannot bear to be in the wrong. As soon as he feels guilt or remorse, he bends his ethics to suit himself. Actions do not flow from ethics, but ethics from actions, and it is by refining our actions that we refine our ethics.
I can’t believe I spent 13 years at school and never got taught cooking, gardening, conversation, massage, Latin, or philosophy. What were they thinking? That I would somehow live off inorganic chemistry?
Relative poverty is when you have more taste than money.
A man shrinks or expands into the degree and nature of his ambition. Ambition needs to be cultivated and refined, and yet has no teachers.
A genius is no more—and no less—than someone who insists on the truth, while others face the other way.
Many things can prolong your life, but only wisdom can save it.