“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun. Yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”
“If you want to preserve your good name, do not praise yourself and do not so much as allow others to praise you.”
“Live your life in such a way that you neither hide nor have a wish to display your life to people.”
“I can't understand how anyone can write without rewriting everything over and over again.”
“The hero of my tale—whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will forever be beautiful—is truth.”
“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.”
“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”
“When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.”
“All the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human feelings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class -herself alone- had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.”