“If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.”

“My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.”

“Medicine, and Law, and Philosophy -You've worked your way through every school,Even, God help you, Theology,And sweated at it like a fool.Why labour at it any more?You're no wiser now than you were before.You're Master of Arts, and Doctor too,And for ten years all you've been able to doIs lead your students a fearful danceThrough a maze of error and ignorance.And all this misery goes to showThere's nothing we can ever know.Oh yes you're brighter than all those relics,Professors and Doctors, scribblers and clerics,No doubts or scruples to trouble you,Defying hell, and the Devil too.But there's no joy in self-delusion;Your search for truth ends in confusion.Don't imagine your teaching will ever raiseThe minds of men or change their ways.And as for worldly wealth, you have none -What honour or glory have you won?A dog could stand this life no more.And so I've turned to magic lore;The spirit message of this art Some secret knowledge might impart.No longer shall I sweat to teach What always lay beyond my reach;I'll know what makes the world revolve,Its mysteries resolve,No more in empty words I'll deal -Creation's wellsprings I'll reveal!”

“Since you know me and my destiny only too well, you probably also know what attracts me to all unfortunate people.”

“What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.”

“You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it neverRises from the soul, and swaysThe heart of every single hearer,With deepest power, in simple ways.You’ll sit forever, gluing things together,Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps,Blowing on a miserable fire,Made from your heap of dying ash.Let apes and children praise your art,If their admiration’s to your taste,But you’ll never speak from heart to heart,Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.”

“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.”