“I thought my fireplace dead and stirred the ashes. I burned my fingers.”

“The wind, one brilliant day, calledto my soul with an odor of jasmine."In return for the odor of my jasmine,I'd like all the odor of your roses.""I have no roses; all the flowersin my garden are dead.""Well then, I'll take the withered petalsand the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain."the wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself:"What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?”

“My philosophy is fundamentally sad, but I’m not a sad man, and I don’t believe I sadden anyone else. In other words, the fact that I don’t put my philosophy into practice saves me from its evil spell, or, rather, my faith in the human race is stronger then my intellectual analysis of it; there lies the fountain of youth in which my heart is continually bathing.”

“Last night, as I was sleeping,I dreamt - marvellous error! -that I had a beehivehere inside my heart.And the golden beeswere making white combsand sweet honeyfrom my old failures.”

“Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt --O, marvelous error -- That there was a beehive here inside my heartAnd the golden bees were making white combsAnd sweet honey from all my failures.”

“Has my heart gone to sleep?Have the beehives of my dreamsstopped working, the waterwheelof the mind run dry,scoops turning empty,only shadow inside?No, my heart is not asleep.It is awake, wide awake.Not asleep, not dreaming—its eyes are opened widewatching distant signals, listeningon the rim of vast silence”

“Anoche cuando dormíasoñé, ¡bendita ilusiòn!,que una fontana fluíadentro de mi corazòn.Di: ¿por qué acequia escondida,agua, vienes hasta mí,manantial de nueva vidaen donde nunca bebí?Anoche cuando dormíasoñé, ¡bendita ilusiòn!,que una colmena teníadentro de mi corazòn;y las doradas abejasiban fabricando en él,con las amarguras viejas,blanca cera y dulce miel.Anoche cuando dormíasoñé, ¡bendita ilusiòn!,que un sol ardiente lucíadentro de mi corazòn.Era ardiente porque dabacalores de rojo hogar,y era sol porque alumbrabay porque hacía llorar.Anoche cuando dormíasoñé, ¡bendita ilusiòn!,que era Dios lo que teníadentro de mi corazòn.”