Of all the passions, the only one that seems respectable to me is the passion for food

You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.

The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.

Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing.

One thing I have learned is that the people who label you are usually the ones who know the least about who you really are and they have never made the effort to learn different.

They were growing closer and closer every day, and Charlotte was finding something magical at Wildflower, something she never thought she would find again—love.

I buy, collect and read books.

Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done; it's just doing it.

A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor.

It is all right for the lion and the lamb to lie down together if they are both asleep, but if one of them begins to get active, it is dangerous.

Your home is that thing to which you can dedicate your energies with such singular devotion that the ultimate results become inconsequential.

I don't want people to feel like they'd overdosed on too much candy.

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.

Cherish your tears and their reasons, they will be the light of your smile, your inner peace and reconciliation.