The historian looks backward. In the end he also believes backward.

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.

Time is the best killer.

I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.

I have always regarded myself as the pillar of my life.

The knowledge of oneself will preserve that person from vanity.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

All of us are products of our childhood.

History is the devil's scripture.

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

To be interested in the changing seasons is . . . a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.

The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

Humility is really important because it keeps you fresh and new.

Life is a disease, brother, and death begins already at birth. Every breath, every heartbeat, is a moment of dying - a little shove toward the end.

If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.