“Melancholy is to know the beauty of life, and to know it must end.”

“A beautiful thing is precious, no matter the price. Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy...”

“Mrs Chadwick used to say the same about my English, about going round the houses. But to be honest, I like going round the houses. And as for beginning at the beginning, the reason I never start there is that I don’t know where the beginning is, and that’s the honest truth. And anyway, I’ve never known anything in my whole life that ever started at the beginning. Things aren’t like that. They usually start about halfway through, or near the end, and then work their way backwards, that’s how must things are.”

“those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy.”

“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness. ”

“Now that all the beauty of my old life is gone, I crave it like good. A beautiful thing like this rose: I almost want to eat it, to swallow it whole to replace the beauty I've lost.”

“Life's greatest tragedy is not that it will someday end, but that most only live to follow directions and sometimes we end up totally lost.”