I said nothing—I hadn’t known Marya, and anyway, “listening quietly” was my general social strategy

Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.

Amsterdam is like the rings of a tree: It gets older as you get closer to the center.

I feel like crying, so I must be crying, but it's impossible to tell because I'm underwater.

...And in freedom, most people find sin.

So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.

A taste so profound and complex that it can't even be compared to other tastes, only to emotions. Cheesy waffles, I was thinking, tastes like love without the fear of love's dissolution.

My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.

The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.

All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm.

I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.

Keep your head up, your faith strong, and your eyes open for the little miracles all around you…because they are there, just waiting to be discovered.

You can do more with a castle in a story than with the best cardboard castle that ever stood on a nursery table.

It is through the filter of our ego that we give meaning to everything we see, touch, hear, taste and feel.

It's a misconception that people over 65 do not use computers. They love them they are always consulting Dr Google.

I think that if you keep your eyes and your ears open and you are receptive to learning, there are skills you can get from any job at all.

They kind of go hand-in-hand. Following your motivation, resting when you need to rest, and going for it when you feel inspired.

I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!

Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.

Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body.

Empires rise and fall like the abdomen of God. It's just the universe breathing.