“I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.”

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. The line from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland drifted through my mind, and I smiled. Good advice, I supposed – but only if you happened to know where the beginning was, and I didn’t quite.”

“It should begin with friendship, I think. Suddenly I cannot look at him.It should begin with friendship and truly knowing who a person is, knowing his flaws and hopes and strengths and fears, knowing all of it. And admiring and caring for- loving the person because of all of those things...I know that now.”

“It is the only happiness now possible to me, to know that all is well with you”

“When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it, what will it be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then - that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it. You say you have poets in your world. Do they not teach you this?”

“Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.”