“What is cowardice in the young is wisdom in the old, but all the same one can be ashamed of wisdom.”

“She was not too young to be wise, but she was too young to know that wisdom shouldn't be spoken aloud when you are happy.”

“I have no need to write to you or talk to you, you know everything before I can speak, but when one loves, one feels the need to use the same old ways one has always used. I know I am only beginning to love, but already I want to abandon everything, everybody but you: only fear and habit prevent me.”

“Pain is easy to write. In pain we're all happily individual. But what can one write about happiness?”

“If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another name?”

“I doubt if ever one ceases to love, but one can cease to be in love as easily as one can outgrow an author one admired as a boy.”

“You must promise me. You can't desire the end without desiring the means.'Ah, but one can, he thought, one can: one can desire the peace of victory without desiring the ravaged towns.”